Rare species of cetacean threatened by illegal gillnets

The rarest animal in the world from the family of the cetacean could disappear in less than four years if the Mexican government will not take urgent and effective measures to protect it from Gill nets, which are illegally deployed in the Gulf of California. This Bay with an area of 1,200 square kilometers is the only habitat for California sea pigs, or vanity.

Currently less than 100 individuals of this 5-meter-long marine animal left in the wild, and the us authorities and ecologists urge Mexico to tighten control over the use of fishing vessels Gill nets. Vacity population is also declining due to illegal fishing which is another endangered fish, known as totoaba swim bladder which is in demand in China.

California porpoise inhabits shallow, turbid coastal waters of the Delta of the Colorado river Gulf of California. According to environmentalists, the number each year is reduced by 18 percent.

In this regard, a coalition of 28 environmental groups, including the Center for biological diversity and the international Fund of protection of wild animals, is currently preparing a number of measures for the conservation of these endemic to the Gulf of California marine mammals. In particular, environmentalists are going to sue in an American court to make a prohibition of all imports of shrimp from the Gulf of California and to apply to the Administration of the American President to enter trade sanctions against Mexico for the violation of the ban on illegal trade of fish totoaba.

At the same time environmentalists are monitoring the situation using aerial surveillance cameras. Separately, an international group of scientists keeps track of these marine mammals with 48 hydrophones mounted on the bottom of the ocean. Aerial photographs taken last week showed at least 17 Gill nets set illegally in the habitat vanity.

Source: www.ozemle.net