Illegal Fishing Vessel Report
The Vaquita Porpoise is the single most endangered Marine Mammal in the world – and the last surviving Vaquita live in only one place, the Vaquita Refuge in the Upper Gulf of California.
The Vaquita truly stand on the brink of extinction, with only 8 to 10 individual porpoises fighting for their lives today.
The mortal threat to the Vaquita is clear and simple:
illegal gill nets.
That means the solution to the Vaquita’s survival is also clear and simple: to keep illegal nets out of the Zero Tolerance Area (ZTA) designed to protect these majestic creatures.
Year-round, the last line of defense for the Vaquita, are Sea Shepherd ships which monitor the ZTA everyday possible – and document and report to the Mexican Navy, SEMAR, the presence of any illegal net fishing pangas in the ZTA.
Sea Shepherd and the Mexican Navy share a simple goal and work-stream:
- To work in partnership to keep illegal fishermen out of the ZTA.
- To react swiftly when pangas do appear in the ZTA, so that the pangas and their nets are moved out of the protected waters as quickly as possible
The reports and charts to the right and below are daily visual and radar sightings of pangas in the ZTA.
These reports are prepared each day, in real-time, in the ZTA, by trained biologists and ship officers on Sea Shepherd vessels.
We invite you to please review this important data. An analysis of these reports, hour by hour, day by day, using the crucial data matrix of pangas per hour, give the world the best view of what is happening in the ZTA.
The Vaquita care about one thing: their survival. To that end, we too care about one thing: a ZTA the Vaquita and their offspring can live in that is safe and successfully protected from the threat of illegal fishing nets.
Progress is being made and there is more work to do.
With our Mexican Government partners, we are working hard every day — committed and diligent now and for the future.
