Vaquita Conservation Effort

Landshark

Landshark

Guest
I really hope this works. We're running out of time and clearly the current bans and restrictions aren't going to work. The part that concerns me is their plan is to round them up and temporarily hold them in confinement. The articles I've read all say not one has ever survived anything like that. Definitely a gamble...
 
Jungle Jim

Jungle Jim

Guest
You know that whenever a zoo AKA: wildlife park, ocean world, aquarium, circus, side show, sanctuary, etc., etc., gets involved there is always the taint of BIG MONEY to be made and it's related: crowds, shows, clowns, exhibits, displays, interactions, trained beasts, trainers, eco tours, etc., etc.

What about all of those enormous empty tanks at the Sea Worlds around the globe that held all of those Orcas for so many years? As I recall they even produced offspring in them while in captivity. I'm sure they are available, for a price.

So, how they gonna catch them pesky little Vaquitas? Gill NETS?? Drag miles long NETS between two pangas??? Maybe herd em into NETS with choppers and dart em with tranquilizers???? Won't they just go under the water? How about attracting them into a corral while playing Flipper music? Sheet, the thought is so absurd that it is boggles the mind. Don't forget the "bycatch", what ya gonna do with all them Totoabas?

Last week while walking around the launch ramp at JJ's I saw an information board near the fishing club office that stated that there were 57 thousand people whose lives, livelihood and families depend on the marine products from the northern Sea of Cortez, which according the the poster includes all of the waters from El Desemboque across to San Felipe and all points north. I can guarantee that the vast majority of them are law abiding citizens with the proper permits paid to the Mexican Government and are committing no crime what-so-ever.

As we ate our delicious JJ's wild caught fresh fish tacos we watched three pangas come in and unload THREE milk crate sized containers with two inch Pink Murexes in them. That catch, my friends, didn't even pay for their gas.

JJ
 
Roberto

Roberto

Guest
I agree that the entire process of capturing is probably impossible. Seems hopeless to think you can regenerate a species with only 30 left. I'm confident that there is no information whether they will reproduce in captivity. Can anyone report on a similar and successful effort at regenerating a severely threatened species.? Personally I'd rather see all that money go to a cause that actually has a high probability of being successful. You can figure that over half of the money, maybe more, that comes to Mexico for the Vaguita will be diverted into private pockets. It will go to support an industry that already thrives here.
 
A

apricot

Guest
https://phys.org/news/2017-01-us-trained-dolphins-mexico-vaquita-porpoise.html

"U.S. Navy-trained dolphins and their handlers will participate in a last-ditch effort to catch, enclose and protect the last few dozen of Mexico's critically endangered vaquita porpoises to save them from extinction."

"Their specific task is to locate" vaquitas, which live only in the Gulf of California, Fallin said. "They would signal that by surfacing and returning to the boat from which they were launched."

"Although the vaquita has never been held successfully in captivity, experts hope to put the remaining porpoises in floating pens in a safe bay in the Gulf of California, also known as the Sea of Cortez, where they can be protected and hopefully breed."

"Catch-and-enclose is risky. The few remaining females could die during capture, dooming the species. Breeding in captivity has successfully saved species such as the red wolf and California condor, but the vaquita has only been scientifically described since the 1950s and has never been bred or even held in captivity."

"Veterinarians will evaluate vaquitas' reactions and release stressed individuals, they wrote. Should a death occur, the team will re-evaluate the sanctuary strategy."

"It is important to stress that the recovery team goal is to return vaquita from the temporary sanctuary into a gillnet-free environment," they wrote.
 
mexicoruss

mexicoruss

Lovin it in RP!
I think we should just figure everything is filled with corruption and not worth the effort and give up .......Oh sorry, I know people involved with this and they would take offense that some body from not here would make an assumption that their work is not 100%. If you are not a part of the solution than your input (good or bad) is worthless, I mean it makes you feel good to make a comment against something... but that's all.
 
Jungle Jim

Jungle Jim

Guest
Well Russ..........here is my worthless "input" and it's mostly........... (bad).

I must say that if and when the Vaquita "roundup" begins I'll gladly pay for a ticket to observe the fiasco from my boat with a big hielera filled with TKT lites and maybe some harder stuff for the voyage home.

Just think about it.........US Navy issue, weapons grade, twelve foot long, fifteen hundred pound, attack trained Bottle-Nose Dolphins airlifted by US Marine Corps V-22 Ospreys, from Yuma or San Diego, dropped at strategic locations in Mexican territorial waters with the intent of rounding up, herding and scaring the living shit out of the few remaining four foot long, one hundred pound Vaquitas. I doubt the two animals share the same language, most will be in such a panic mode they will probably strand themselves in order to escape from and not be eaten alive by the military monsters. Then the teams will re-evaluate the strategy, like take the dead beached victims as specimens for more "scientific research" IF they can find them before the Turkey Vultures and Coyotes do.

I'm sure that I mentioned in past posts my involvement in similar last ditch animal "roundups" to include the Desert Bighorn Sheep, the Sonoran Pronghorn Antelope , the Wild Horse and the Wild Burro. I did my last years in the US Army Reserve attached to the aviation operations based at Yuma Proving Grounds near here in Yuma AZ. The US Army offered it's aviation assets to almost all government agencies in the area at no cost and considered it to be "training" for the pilots and aircrews.

My personal involvement was with our UH-1H "Huey" helicopters that we offered mostly to the BLM as chase aircraft to assist with the roundups of the animals that I listed above. The BLM contracted out smaller helicopters from private firms to locate and herd the animals and we were available to pick them up in nets slung from the lifting hooks on our Hueys. All of the Horses and Burros accepted this insulting operation with little concern other than being scared absolutely shit-less. The Desert Bighorns and Sonoran Pronghorns were another situation completely. All of of those animals held in the nets and been tranquilized after being shot with darts from the smaller choppers. We lifted them and flew to drop off points near I-95 where trucks were waiting to crate em up and haul em off to be relocated to areas where they used to range.

What I saw over and over was dead, stunned and shocked animals that would never be able adapt to the new locations. The Pronghorn deaths were almost 100%. These "do-gooder" ops really did do nothing but reduce the animal populations to even more critical levels.

The lucky Horses and Burros that we collected all ended up in huge corrals in Utah to eventually become dog food.

JJ
 
jerry

jerry

Guest
Boycott wild caught Mexican shrimp ....the market solves many problems.....and get some poisoned Totoba bladders in the black market supply chain.Look what a little poison scare did for Tylenol
 
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jerry

jerry

Guest
Roberto said:
I agree that the entire process of capturing is probably impossible. Seems hopeless to think you can regenerate a species with only 30 left. I'm confident that there is no information whether they will reproduce in captivity. Can anyone report on a similar and successful effort at regenerating a severely threatened species.? Personally I'd rather see all that money go to a cause that actually has a high probability of being successful. You can figure that over half of the money, maybe more, that comes to Mexico for the Vaguita will be diverted into private pockets. It will go to support an industry that already thrives here.
Click to expand...
Only thing I can think of is the Condors......and Chinese dipshits didn't want to eat the bladders of a neighboring species. El Golfo fishing coop is a mafia nest....shooting them from choppers like game and fish is shooting Coyotes this week near Herford to give Pronghorn yearlings a break would be the only way.Sadly we only shoot enemies of big oil from the air.
 
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