Sea Shepherd ship attacked in Mexico's Gulf of California
Source: Associated Press
Updated 7:04 pm CST, Friday, February 1, 2019
MEXICO CITY (AP) The Sea Shepherd environmental group said Friday that one if its ships was attacked with rocks and partly set afire by a flotilla of about 20 fishing boats in Mexico's Gulf of California.
It was the second attack in a month in the upper Gulf, where Sea Shepherd is patrolling against illegal nets to help save the critically endangered vaquita marina porpoise. The patrols have drawn the ire of local fishermen.
The vaquita is nearing extinction due to gill nets set illegally to catch totoaba, a fish whose swim bladder commands astronomical prices because it is considered a delicacy in China.
Sea Shepherd published a video Friday showing a flotilla of fast, small fishing boats swarming around its larger vessel, the Farley Mowat.
Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/world/article/Sea-Shepherd-ship-attacked-in-Mexico-s-Gulf-of-13581791.php
Evolve Dammit
(16,763 posts)and particularly where vulnerable and/or endangered species are potential victims. We are losing our world, so that people can enjoy a culinary or exotic treat, whether it's targeted oceanic-"harvesting" or poaching endangered species. My heart goes out to those actively trying to track, expose and stop this destruction.
Duppers
(28,127 posts)The Chinese are so insensitive to animals.
rwsanders
(2,606 posts)Also, I think we might save a lot of endangered species if we offered these traditional medicine shops free Viagra.
Hope that's not racist, if it is I apologize and I'll come back and delete.
Duppers
(28,127 posts)Great idea! Save many species... For awhile anyway.
world wide wally
(21,754 posts)rwsanders
(2,606 posts)Viva Vaquita is running a petition drive to try to get the Mexican Government to fully enforce a ban on gillnets:
Save the Whales is running a petition drive, asking for hard copies of this postcard:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1w4ZggFnhAKt481twOndphRR43bXLW1Z-/view?usp=sharing
It may be too late, but if you are in California the postcards go here:
http://www.vivavaquita.org/postcard-drive-for-vaquita.html
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is in the Sea of Cortez (Gulf of California) actively removing gillnets in cooperation with the Mexican Navy, please consider supporting their efforts:
https://seashepherd.org/campaigns/milagro/
http://vaquitafilm.wildlensinc.org/
https://www.terramater.at/cinema/sea-of-shadows/
http://www.sundance.org/projects/sea-of-shadows
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1610919319/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02__o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Duppers
(28,127 posts)I've signed a few petitions about this but you've posted some I've missed.
🙏
rwsanders
(2,606 posts)We need to make sure that people are noticing this issue.
I've been wearing my Sea Shepherd jacket to church. This Sunday it will be my bright pink Save the Vaquita t-shirt.
flvegan
(64,415 posts)From the Hvalur sinkings to the Thunder, and Agenda21. I miss the old SSCS.
Raine
(30,540 posts)Thank you for posting this I had heard nothing about it..
rwsanders
(2,606 posts)Even with the critical situation, Animal Planet and National Geographic won't cover it.
Duppers
(28,127 posts)Attenborough might have covered it on PBS or Nat Geo.
dalton99a
(81,578 posts)A scientist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows a dried totoaba bladder at a news conference in 2013. Elliot Spagat/AP
Fish and Wildlife Service agents are finding that the bladders often make their way to China via California. They found their first illegal bladder in a car coming across the Mexican border in 2013 an astute agent had heard of the trade and recognized the bladder.
Later that year, agents seized another fish bladder from under the floor mats of another car at the border. They let the driver go but followed him. Dean says when agents raided his house, the scene inside was crazy. No furniture just bladders. Everywhere.
"There were totoaba swim bladders placed all throughout the house," Dean says. "Giant fans blowing to dry out the bladders." Altogether, the 214 bladders that agents found in that house were worth $3.6 million.
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/02/09/466185043/chinese-taste-for-fish-bladder-threatens-tiny-porpoise-in-mexico
Duppers
(28,127 posts)Chinese creating such a market!!!
Last edited Sat Feb 2, 2019, 04:19 PM - Edit history (1)
This is a truly urgent issue, and, though I'm not always a super-fan of some eco-warrior-type tactics, I'm 1000% behind them on this one.
Many good people have trying to make something happen for a long time (In Puerto Penasco, for instance, CEDO has also been doing very good work over the last few decades: http://cedo.org/en/vaquita-lecture-series-2019/), and supposedly the Mexican government has been on board, but the Mexican government's follow-through on enforcement has been, shall we say, lacking in energy and effectiveness. Empty words will not save the vaquita.
[wording correction to reflect my education by Duppers ]
Duppers
(28,127 posts)One small thing tho: Sea Shepherd and Greenpeace are two different orgs. I've given to both and support all their actions.
- an Environment Warrior
MBS
(9,688 posts)Anyway, I'm very glad they're out there.
rwsanders
(2,606 posts)non-existent and even undermined by the government agencies responsible for enhancing fisheries.
But it is not just a Mexican problem. I have inside information that suggestions were made at high levels in the U.S. Coast Guard to provide assistance in patrolling the Sea of Cortez and no one was interested. It would be impossible to push something through with the tangerine mobster in control, and writing my Nazi congressmen wouldn't help a bit (I'm in Missouri).
MBS
(9,688 posts)Last edited Sun Feb 3, 2019, 09:00 PM - Edit history (1)
. . . at least provided the willingness of the Powers that Be (as you said), in both the US and Mexico, to ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING. The problem has been known for decades; the source of the problem, and the solution, have also been known almost as long. Yet every year, there are fewer vaquitas.
rwsanders
(2,606 posts)this is NOT a historical fishery. Mexico moved people into the area to build a fishery for export.
Also, it is now known that marine reserves actually INCREASE yield.
So if Mexico was really concerned with long term profits, they could completely close the upper Sea of Cortez, heck it is a closed system, the fish have no where to go.
MBS
(9,688 posts)That makes it even worse.
As always, the tension between short-term/short-sighted greed vs. long-term benefits and broader perspective.
Duppers
(28,127 posts)Thanks, Judi.
What an asset to DU you are!
🙏