Another campaign to find, anaesthetize & disentangle sea lions from choking remnants of gillnets around their necks where they can't chew through the nylon mesh.
San Jorge Island - Rescate de Lobos Marinos, Grupo Lobo Campodonico, CABET, @PROFEPA_MX, @pescaabc, @SeaShepherdSSCS
3/3 Given considerable resource deployment to address 1-2 pangas gillnetting in the ZTA, greater effort is needed to govern larger area. Major improvement in compliance from the fishing community would reduce the challenge but opposition must be overcome
bit.ly/4smkJyA
2/3 The 10 days with strong tides included a daytime hourly count with gillnetting visually confirmed by @SeaShepherdSSCS in the ZTA. It's the most challenging enforcement situation: authorities need to prevent gillnetting outside the ZTA while their vessels are active within it
1/3 New CAT report examined 10 fishing days in 2026 before @SEMARNAT_mx #GIS Feb 6 announcement of planned new #vaquita gillnet ban area & found an average of nearly 70 pangas which were likely using gillnets within the area where the proposed regulatory change aims to have zero
Opening of shrimp season in fall 2025 was delayed by several weeks for the #vaquita survey. Now @Conapesca has delayed shrimp season closure - in the Upper Gulf only - to March 25 in a move welcomed by fishing community at a time of tension over planned changes to gillnet ban.
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San Felipe meetings of @SEMARNAT_mx @mroblesg with @CONANP_mx citizen science group, fishers & local authorities, incl "tour of points along the coast, muelle, malecón, el Machorro - locations from which efforts will strengthen #vaquita conservation & sustainable local economy."
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Don't forget the #vaquita today #WorldWildlifeDay2026 💙
art: Gail Baker Nelson
Tomorrow March 3 San Felipe celebrates #WorldWildlifeDay2026 on the Malecón with a sunrise beach cleanup followed by a sand sea turtle design contest and some volleyball
In early February @SeaShepherdSSCS reported an enforcement action by @SEMAR_mx against a gillnetting panga inside the #Vaquita Refuge's Zero Tolerance Area and separately removed a shrimp gillnet plus a flounder gillnet a whopping 1.5 km in length.
www.congresobc.gob.mx/Documentos/P...
Both SEMARNAT #GIS & fishers' own proposed new gillnet ban area are similar & cover 85% of the #Vaquita Refuge. BC Diputado Juan Manuel Molina García won a vote of approval for his exhortation to the federal government to accept the fishers' proposal, which he published ⬇️
Some San Felipe fishers say they are unhappy with new gillnet ban area proposed by @SEMARNAT_mx #GIS Feb 6 (green), but both it & the area proposed by fishers themselves in Oct 2023 (brown) reduce #Vaquita Refuge (blue) by 85%. New area would open favored areas closer to shore.
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👀 document fraud to launder banned gillnetted blue shrimp from #vaquita porpoise habitat into the US in contravention of #MMPA included as "an alarming case" of "serious environmental crime" in Mariela León's @Cambio16 'Canned deception: fraud in fish products is on the rise.'
Interview with @colossal "conservation rock star" CEO @BenLamm in @SPIN "Ben Lamm might just save the world"
His support for @PronaturaNoroes @CONANP_mx community-based conservation might just save the #vaquita porpoise, a species too many doomsayers wrote off as a lost cause 🙌
Planned smaller gillnet ban area is almost exactly what fishing leaders themselves asked for, but due to - in the words of fisherwoman Ana García - "a certain permissiveness" since 2019 re: gillnet use inside the #Vaquita Refuge, some SF fishers see changes as a loss not a gain.
x.com/AldoEspino1...
Thanks @MaliciaTejeda for sharing San Felipe including and celebrating #Panchito at Carnaval parade 🥳
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youtu.be/dMayrvVOMOo...
Five years ago journalist @MarianaVZ met cartel gun runners using fishing skiffs north of San Felipe who told her they were #CJNG working for #ElMencho
Among other actions February 16-19 in #vaquita habitat, @PROFEPA_Mx reports installation of two new buoys which mark the boundary of the Zero Tolerance Area.
x.com/PROFEPA_Mx/...
Pleased to see Upper Gulf #vaquita habitat & community expertise represented at @CONANP_mx advisory body, the National Council of Protected Natural Areas #CONAP, by the vivacious Director of Conservation @PronaturaNoroes Valeria Towns 🐬🙏
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#Vaquita #totoaba new drawing by Prosaicat
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Feb 12-15, rinse & repeat
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Upper Gulf fishers shared on social media their letter to the heads of SEMARNAT, SADER & SEMAR "fully committed to participating..to strengthen protection of natural envt" & asking for mitigation measures & economic & marketing support to strike a balance between conservation & community development
After Feb 6 #GIS meeting on changes to #vaquita gillnet ban regulation, authorities manned the controversial San Felipe beach malecón boat ramp to inspect fishing boat & emphasize restricted area boundaries.
x.com/PROFEPA_Mx/...
