SAN FELIPE/BAHIA DE LOS ANGELES, MEXICO Marine biologist Meghann McDonald look in a boat towards the nearby islands. He studies the world’s largest fish species, the critically endangered whale shark (Rhincodon typus), found in the Bahia de Los Ángeles bay on the California peninsula.
– There seems to be one swimming there, McDonald sighs.
He leads Vermilion Sea Institute organization and a field research station in a village inhabited by 1,500 people. McDonald has lived there almost all his life.
The marine biologist’s father founded the research station in 1974 to study and protect the unique nature of the California peninsula. The area is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a nature reserve. It has been compared to the Galápagos Islands due to its diversity and number of native species.
– Outsiders want to benefit financially from the huge resources of the bay. The scallop is a good example of this. A few years ago, there were enough of them for local needs, but the population quickly collapsed due to overfishing, McDonald tells .
In addition to overfishing, poaching of the endangered bigeye (Totoaba macdonaldi) is practiced in the bay, which is concentrated around San Felipe, located more than 300 kilometers to the north.
However, there is an absolute fishing ban in the area, and fishermen who follow it have to go further to secure their livelihood. This has also been done by poachers.
– I’ve seen a lot of unknown fishing boats here that weren’t in these waters before, says McDonald with concern.
There are only about a dozen Californians left
Mexicans are leading the poaching of isovelto, which grows up to a hundred kilos drug cartels together with Chinese smugglers.
Rich Chinese people eat soup made from isovelto’s dried swimming bladder because of health beliefs.
Fish regulate their swimming depth with the help of a swim bladder. After it is removed, the dead fish are thrown back into the sea or desert.
Swimming bladders are paid so much on the black market that the cartels call isovelt the “cocaine of the sea”. Illegal fishing is becoming the fate of not only the isovelto, but also the vaquita (Phocoena sinus).
The International Whaling Commission (IWC) issued an extinction warning for the California whale on August 7. This is the first warning of imminent extinction in the Commission’s history.
– I believe that the warning will help. Solving environmental problems is not simple. It requires an analysis of causes and consequences. The needs of all operators belonging to our community must also be taken into account, says McDonald.
Only vaquitas living on the wigs of the Gulf of California have been taken in May based on the calculation only 10–13 individuals.
Porpoises are only one and a half meters long among all marine mammals the smallest habitat.
The roundfish are caught in illegal bottom nets, which are used to catch the native big flounder, which is found in the central and northern parts of the bay. Thousands of other animals also die as bycatch, such as sea turtles, rays, sharks, dolphins, sea lions, birds and fish.
More valuable than cocaine
According to Chinese belief, an enlarged swim bladder improves fertility, blood circulation, joint pain and skin problems. It is a myth with no scientific evidence behind it.
Dried swim bladder fetches more than $22,000 per kilogram on the black market in China and Hong Kong. You can get about one swimming bladder $1,400 to $4,000, but the price keeps rising and is now more expensive than cocaine. The value of one swim bladder may even increase to $100,000.
A local fisherman Earns from a swimming bladder approx $8,500 per kilo. It is almost as much as the annual income from legal fishing.
That’s a lot of money for a poor fisherman in the town of San Felipe, which used to be popular with American tourists and nature lovers. After the arrival of the cartels more than 10 years ago, the city went dark.
The street scene is dominated by empty office buildings and shopping centers, the construction of which has not been completed.
There is a complete fishing ban imposed by the Mexican government in the habitat of the California roundworm. State of Mexico compensate the fishermen due to loss of livelihood, until the current president of the country Andrés Manuel López Obrador canceled the monetary compensation after coming to power in 2019.
McDonald thinks conservation efforts will suffer because of the decision.
– Fishermen have to feed their families. If you try to forbid people from doing their business without offering other opportunities, they will move to do it elsewhere and bring the problems to new areas.
Watch the video how a whale shark swims in the Gulf of California:
Protection measures produce results
Numerous environmental organizations, such as the one working in cooperation with the Mexican navy and marine biologists Sea Shepherdare trying to eradicate isovelto poaching.
Sea Shepherd, which follows small fishing boats with its drones and ships, has pulled more than a thousand illegal bottom nets from the water since 2015. The organization has not backed down, even though the ships have been shot at.
Illegal fishing has decreased by more than 90 percent 30 Chinese smugglers and the mafia boss who led the operation Oscar Beard of imprisonment after 2018.
Documentary of Sea of Shadows and, according to the Brookings Institution, Mexican authorities corruption has slowed the end of poaching.
– Dealing with the authorities is difficult. Different agencies do not cooperate with each other. They should go hand in hand with conservation programs, but this is not always the case.
– It seems that the situation is often the opposite, and there is no desire to find a common solution, says McDonald.
The doctor leading the mapping project of the California roundworm Barbara Taylor however, is hopeful in terms of the survival of the species, as one chick was also observed in the May count.
– The result of this calculation is the most encouraging in terms of saving the Californian tern in all these 30 years of working for the preservation of the species.
– The latest census proves that protection like this needs to be extended to the entire habitat of the remaining porpoises, said Taylor of the Sea Shepherd organization in the bulletin.
More information about the California roundworm Leonardo DiCaprio in the documentary produced by Sea of Shadows.
What kind of thoughts does the threat to nature caused by illegal fishing arouse in you? You can discuss the topic until Wednesday at 23:00.