St. John's, N.L., Jan. 22, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The World Wildlife Fund invites media to the Marine Institute’s Centre for Sustainable Aquatic Resources, where fishing trawls are being tested in an attempt to save the vaquita, the world’s most endangered marine mammal. Found in Mexico’s Gulf of California, only about 30 vaquitas are thought to remain and it’s feared the small porpoise could be extinct by the end of 2018. The biggest threat to their survival is drowning in gillnets.
WWF-Mexico is bringing a delegation of fishers, fishing gear designers, representatives of the Expert Committee on Fishing Technologies and the Mexican government to the Fisheries and Marine Institute of Memorial University in St. John’s to test a new design of net that won’t harm vaquitas and other marine species.
WHERE: Centre for Sustainable Aquatic Resources, Marine Institute,155 Ridge Rd., St John's, N.L.
WHEN: Thursday Jan. 25, 2018, 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. (NTZ)
WHAT: Viewing and filming of fishing trawl testing in the flume tank; interviews with Mexican fish harvesters and experts brought to Newfoundland and Labrador by WWF-Mexico.
About the vaquita
- The world’s rarest marine mammal, with a population of about 30, vaquitas are critically endangered and on the brink of extinction.
- The small porpoises are highly elusive and were not known until 1958. Rapid population declines led to the vaquita being listed as critically endangered in 1996, at which time several hundred vaquita remained.
- In June 2017, after two years of a temporary ban on gillnets, Mexico announced a permanent ban, which was implemented jointly with a program that compensates fishers for not fishing.
What WWF-Mexico is doing
- WWF is working to ensure the Upper Gulf of California, the only place vaquitas are found, is gillnet-free for the benefit of this mammal and the marine biodiversity of the Gulf of California.
- WWF works with partners to retrieve abandoned “ghost” gillnets from the ocean, which continue to entangle and kill vaquitas and other marine species. From October 2016 to July 2017 alone, WWF retrieved more than 500 nets from vaquita habitat.
- WWF has long collaborated on acoustic monitoring, to help estimate the vaquita population. WWF will continue to support acoustic monitoring of the population, as it provides crucial information for the design and implementation of effective conservation measures.
- WWF holds the secretariat of the Expert Committee on Fishing Technologies that includes international experts in gear design focused on finding fishing technologies that eliminate bycatch of vaquita and other endangered species.
About World Wildlife Fund Canada
WWF-Canada creates solutions to the environmental challenges that matter most for Canadians. We work in places that are unique and ecologically important, so that nature, wildlife and people thrive together. Because we are all wildlife. For more information, visit wwf.ca.
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A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/c8eb509b-63f3-4475-bb5a-63232161764c