Captive Breeding for Vaquitas?

Everything that is being done for the problem is in Gulf of California. But it would be necessary also to work in China. Investigate and find the buyers of totoaba swim bladders (not sure if it's possible that they can be arrested for buying pieces of a critically endangered fish), and doing a lot of concienciation about how false are the propierties of the soup made with them (in fact, totoaba is not the original fish from which the soup is made).

 

Hacia las profundidades del cultivo de la totoaba
In this article Mexican experts mention some of the difficulties on breeding totoaba, it seems that are still many elements which must be solved. En español, amigos.

 

Maybe relocate the existing vaquita to areas with less gill nets and more totoaba?

 

The issue with the ocean is the inability to fence in threatened populations, stopping them from re-entering unsafe areas (or drifting gear entering the 'safe' ones). Plus I imagine the extent of such areas within the gulf of California is limited.

 

Yeah, the vaquita natural range is really tiny as it is. Begs the question as to why their range is so tiny, really.

 

:

Only 12 vaquita porpoises remain, watchdog group reports

 

Even if every gill-net disappeared tomorrow, I doubt it would make any difference to the vaquita's fate. When numbers get this low, the proximate cause of extinction often isn't the main driver of its decline (the small vs. declining population paradigms).

 

Oh my that is a severe drop from the last report.

 

Without a captive population as well, things are looking real rough for the vaquita

 

Looks like we may be discussing the next extinct Cetacean.

 

Mexico’s leading scientist on the critically endangered vaquita is optimistic
In this interesting article mexican biologist Lorenzo Rojas Bracho states that at this point no one really knows how many vaquitas there are but that the species may still be saved if killing can be halted.

 

An important element here is gene tic diversity mentioned by Dr. Rojas. The tissue samples taken from the 2 vaquitas that were captured have shown an adequate genetic diversity which proves that the vaquitas are not too inbred and may be Able to recover. This research was made by the San Diego zoo scientists by the way,so zoos are still helping the vaquitas.

 

That´s a good new, I was expecting a no-return point due inbreed. But makes me really sad an angry that this sentence

have been regulary said during the last, at least, ten years, and Vaquita population continue decreasing with apparently no real plans to save them...

 

I've always been really salty about the vaquita situation because their population has been falling for years now, and it seems like there was no real attempt to do anything until things got super desperate. I read Witness to Extinction and the parallels between the baiji and the vaquita are disturbing.

That said, though I'm not very optimistic, I agree that we shouldn't give up. Species have rebounded from similar numbers before.

 

That's really cool. Wish more members of the public knew how many ways zoos help wild animals. (it's not just captive breeding!)

I've suspected that low genetic diversity might not be a big problem for vaquitas, I'm glad to hear that there's proof of it. The vaquita population has never been known to be big, their genetics have likely adjusted to work in a small population, as we see with many island species.

 

Clonación sería última esperanza para la vaquita marina
Dr. Lorenzo Rojas Bracho of the vaquita project mentions the progress in decoding vaquita DNA and genome by the San Diego Zoo scientists, at least this has advanced quite well. There are still no sample tissues from a male vaquita, so despite the title of the news article cloning does not seem likely. There have no reports of vaquitas seen this year, though there habitat is still under protection.

 

https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/organized-crime-interfered-in-vaquita-rescue-conabio/
And now for the hard facts, Dr. Jose Sarukhan is Mexico most respected biologist and this is what he says about the vaquita´s current situation. It is not good.

 

So is that it, is the species doomed?

 

Essentially, yes. There's too much fear any further efforts could compromise the species worse based on what happened with the most recent attempt.

We're just going to have to "look forward" to the general audience finding out the species is extinct and mourning that more was not done.

 

At least now people can start working with the next endangered porpoise and start establishing a population in captivity before it’s too late. It’s a shame that the Yangtze River dolphin and the vaquita have to become extinct before people realize it though...