Captive Breeding for Vaquitas?

Vaquita rescue program suspended
More information here. The vaquita rescue program has been suspended but not terminated. A complete necropsy on the mature female vaquita must be carried out to determine if it was not a good candidate for captivity due to natural factors. It has been established that there are more than 30 vaquitas thanks to the 18 sightings which included mothers with calves. So breeding is occuring. The aid of the navy dolphins was important here. The next step should be to have a census of vaquitas that is reliable to determine if the vaquitas can survive the risk of population being taken for captive reproduction, perhaps this should have been the first step since the beginning.

 

Maybe could be used a robot for put cameras and microchips in the remaining vaquitas, allowing to be monitored 24h?

It must have been so bad when the team saw the captured female died. The feelings of the team for sure was terrible :-(

 

I hate everything right now.

 

Yeah. I’m not giving up just yet. Species have recovered from worse numbers.

 

El rescate de la vaquita marina ¿qué sigue?, el análisis en Despierta - Televisa News
What next for the vaquita ? This is what the mexican government says.The second video is very interesting too.

 

Here's an overview of the decision to shut down the vaquita capture and captive breeding plan: 30 Vaquita Porpoises Are Left. One Died in a Rescue Mission.

 

Vaquita marina capturada murió por paro cardíaco: Semarnat

According to this article, the captured vaquita died from cardiac arrest due to old age with no relation to the capture. I can't find another article on the subject and I'm not familiar with this source, so I'll be keeping an eye out for other articles and posts on the subject.

Vaquita: The Business of Extinction

Also, CNN has this piece about how much money comes from totoaba fishing and why that makes vaquita recovery efforts (along with totoaba conservation efforts) so difficult.

 

It's credible that the captured vaquita died from health issues related with old age (maybe, otherwise it would not have let be captured), but it's too casual that the heart attack happened in the moment of the capture. I think that probably, without the stress of the capture, it would have lived some months more.

 

This is a classic of why conservation is not itself wrong, just absurdly wrong headed when its put into practice, sometimes. So much expense and fuss, and yet left too late it makes me angry this wasn't done much sooner. And the totoaba, as a part of the ecosystem that isn't as kawaii desu, don't get public attention.

I will say this: surely the whole genome of all 30 or so vaquitas can be sequenced, then if the worst happens, at least a whole population can be reconstructed or rebuilt in the near future. Since the vaquita has close living relatives there must be a high probability of success compared to something like thylacines.

There is ironically cause for hope in the thread above: "The surviving vaquitas have become quite good at avoiding nets. This has made catching them more complicated than anticipated." Nets were a disastrous, novel change in the vaquita's environment that created a genetic bottleneck, but those that adapted are surviving. Its just that a single bad gene or a disease outbreak could finish them off more easily now and thats why the heart attack is potentially crucial.

I think some people here are missing the point about the vaquita having a fatal heart attack: the problem is that there is often a genetic predisposition to cardiac conditions. If one vaquita from a small, genetically limited population died of heart failure during capture, surely there is chance of an increased risk with the wider vaquita population. Some things have to give pause for thought, si?

 

This is what I figure as well. Maaaaaaybe a healthy vaquita could have survived capture.

 

La genética ...al rescate de la vaquita marina | La Crónica de Hoy
Rafael Pacchiano, the mexican minister of enviroment, has stated that there will be no more attempts to capture vaquitas. The sightings in November prove that breeding is occuring, mother and juveniles were spotted. The current estimate is of 30 to 60 vaquitas. Samples of tissue and blood from to 2 different vaquitas were taken and will be used for genetic research. The ban on the use of nets and strict protection of the vaquita habitat will continue.

 

Business as usual, despite past evidence that the population is in steep decline? the parallels to the baiji are striking.

 

I've been reading Witness to Extinction. If the parallels aren't clear enough to ya already, the book definitely cements it. Bleh. At least the vaquita is getting more pre-extinction international attention than the baiji did, but I still fear that it came too late.

 

Seeing as the Mexican government utterly fail to enforce the supposed gillnet ban there is little hope for any recovery.

 

I read Witness to Extinction late last year. A very poignant book that I would recommend to anyone with an interest in or involvement in wildlife conservation.

 

Mexico to create fish farms to save vaquita porpoise from extinction - Xinhua | English.news.cn
Mexico will establish fish farms for the captive breeing of the totoaba. It is hoped that will allow a legal way to supply the demand for totoaba without endangering the vaquita. Totoaba has already been bred by the biologists at Universidad Autonoma de Baja California, though the article does not mention this. It is interesting that this is reported in english by a chinese news agency. How much this will help the vaquita remains to be seen.

 

Will any be bred for wild release?

 

For now,no wild release has been mentioned yet. Toataba farms will give jobs to the fishermen who can not work now because of the vaquita conservation plan. This will help create more local support for the program. It seems to be a good plan, let us hope it works.

 

I think before such farms would become operational, some years will pass - and vaquita will become extinct in the meantime.

 

It would also reduce the price of the totoaba, and then poaching would no longer be worth the risk.

The problem is, it's gonna be years before we get to that point, so a lot of stuff still needs to be done in the meantime.