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Cetacean Action Treasury @cetaceanaction.bsky.social · 11h

Vaquita expert committee CIRVA has recommended more hooked gillnet deterrent blocks be placed in a portion of the Vaquita Refuge northwest of the ZTA where there have been recent sightings & acoustic encounters.

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Cetacean Action Treasury @cetaceanaction.bsky.social · 13h

Yesterday some San Felipe fishers peacefully protested the detention of a panga in the #Vaquita Refuge on opening day of shrimp season, & declared their unwillingness to respect the gillnet ban outside the Zero Tolerance Area & accept Vessel Monitoring System devices.

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Cetacean Action Treasury @cetaceanaction.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Thank you, hopefully a new level of protection will be achieved in the Vaquita Refuge this coming fishing year, but it may be off to a rough start.

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Cetacean Action Treasury @cetaceanaction.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

On opening day of shrimp season yesterday the authorities in San Felipe detained a panga fishing with a gillnet in the #Vaquita Refuge

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Cetacean Action Treasury @cetaceanaction.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Santa Clara fishers were told it is imperative that #vaquita porpoise protected areas are respected when shrimp season opens tomorrow morning

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Cetacean Action Treasury @cetaceanaction.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Reports of the May San Felipe community #vaquita porpoise observer training & simultaneous acoustic monitoring in & around the Zero Tolerance Area now available from @CONANP_mx 👁️🐬: 3 sightings 🎙️🐬: 128 acoustic encounters 🧬🐬: 11 eDNA trainees organized by @taniavaldiviac

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Cetacean Action Treasury @cetaceanaction.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

The Zero Tolerance Area polygon was never meant to imply gillnet tolerance in the rest of the #Vaquita Refuge/Gillnet Exclusion Zone. However, only a few fishers associated with @pescaabc have the learned skills to use the small trawl gear permitted by @Conapesca effectively.

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Cetacean Action Treasury @cetaceanaction.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Getting ready for the first Upper Gulf festival organized in San Felipe by SEMARNAT Oct 17-18, CONANP held two workshops for 80 schoolchildren who will participate as Guardians of the Sea: 1) history of San Felipe & its relationship with the ocean & 2) all about the Biosphere Reserve.

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Cetacean Action Treasury @cetaceanaction.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

3/3 While vaquitas echolocate & forage throughout a 24-hour period the small sample of <2 ms ICI (high repetition rate) click trains associated with aggressive or high arousal social interactions in harbor porpoises were strongly biased towards late night onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10....

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Cetacean Action Treasury @cetaceanaction.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

2/3 Annual breakout shows severe decline in click train recording by grid of acoustic CPOD hydrophones, from >35,000 in summer 2012 to 400 in summer 2018. Blue = searching echolocation behavior & red presumed high intensity social interaction, based on analogy to harbor porpoise

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Cetacean Action Treasury @cetaceanaction.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

1/3 New paper by Diana López-Arzate et al: most #vaquita porpoise prey capture buzz echolocations (green - ICI inter-click intervals 2-10 milliseconds) are in southwest shallow coastal part of Vaquita Refuge near Zero Tolerance Area acc summer acoustic monitoring data 2011-2018.

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Cetacean Action Treasury @cetaceanaction.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Around 500 new satellite vessel monitoring systems have been installed on pangas in Santa Clara, with 20 remaining, says @Conapesca. "Social engagement is fundamental to the program's development & success." It's a commitment Mexico made to @CITES & fishers agreed to use them. x.com/TribunaSL/s...

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Cetacean Action Treasury @cetaceanaction.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

3/3 English auto-translation of the paper can be downloaded here www.cetact.org/library/Gar...

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Cetacean Action Treasury @cetaceanaction.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

2/3 "The persistent resistance of fishing sectors to abandoning banned gillnets, along with the lack of fully functional and culturally accepted technological alternatives, reflects the socio-economic and structural complexity of the problem."

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Cetacean Action Treasury @cetaceanaction.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

1/3 Cumulatively averaged, fishers caught same amount of shrimp & much more finfish (chano milkfish & sierra mackerel) in #vaquita porpoise habitat despite 2 decades of conservation measures & gillnet bans acc to new paper by sustainable seafood advocate & analyst Juan MC Garcia x.com/caudillojmg...

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Cetacean Action Treasury @cetaceanaction.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Gulf curvina season opens & in San Felipe it poses a serious entanglement risk to #vaquita because drift gillnets are used -as for almost all finfish, & shrimp- not the pesca en cierro or surface encirclement as in Santa Clara, where CIRVA vaquita experts have judged it low risk

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Cetacean Action Treasury @cetaceanaction.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Third time's the charm? New VMS installed in 80 pangas so far in Santa Clarar,eports @ernesto-mendez.bsky.social San Felipe is next. Shrimp season will start in a few weeks; the new vessel monitors are an essential tool to keep shrimp gillnets outside of the #Vaquita Refuge, at a minimum.

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Cetacean Action Treasury @cetaceanaction.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

🤩 @Conapesca is providing a new @CLSFisheries Vessel Monitoring System for fishers in #vaquita porpoise habitat which is suitable for their pangas: solar-powered, waterproof, transmits via cell service close to coast & automatically switches to satellite when out of range.

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Cetacean Action Treasury @cetaceanaction.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

In memorium to Patricia Martinez de Velasco, rare #vaquita porpoise footage from her award winning 1993 documentary La Vaquita Marina, filmed on expedition organized by @mexdesconocido & @PronaturaNoroes. "We must act now to uphold the right to life of every endangered animal"

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Cetacean Action Treasury @cetaceanaction.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

2/2 USTR has already said in July that the process has resulted in Oct 2025 signing of US-Mexico Plan to Protect the Vaquita Marina, Prevent Illegal Fishing in the Upper Gulf of California, & Combat Totoaba Trafficking, with semi-annual Implementation Working Group meetings. ustr.gov/sites/defaul...

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Cetacean Action Treasury @cetaceanaction.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

1/2 House Democrats led by @doggett.house.gov request US Trade Representative to respond in a month with a progress report to inform Congress of their handling of the #USMCA treaty's first Environmental Consultations over Mexico's failure to enforce its laws protecting #vaquita porpoise.

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Cetacean Action Treasury @cetaceanaction.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Idaho Matters Samantha Wright @npr.org flags that the #vaquita porpoise is one of the 100 species that the new initiative @phoenixspecies.bsky.social @bezosearthfund.org @rewildorg.bsky.social aims to recover 💪 & looks back to how we got here

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Cetacean Action Treasury @cetaceanaction.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

2/2 #Vaquita recovery depends on enforcement & incentives. "The equation is complicated: we must prevent an economic activity [fishing] from extinguishing a species without turning conservation into an obstacle for those who live from that same activity." dossierpolitico.com/2026/08/17/...

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Cetacean Action Treasury @cetaceanaction.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

1/2 Gillnets were banned in the Upper Gulf. "On paper the main threat to the #vaquita was perfectly identified [bycatch mainly in #totoaba gillnets, but also in other sizes set for shrimp & legal finfish] but the problem became getting the nets to really stop entering the water" x.com/dossierpoli...

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Cetacean Action Treasury @cetaceanaction.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Thanks to Koipai Yuxa mechanic Alan Nuñez for ensuring our course towards community #vaquita marina conservation is steered true.

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Cetacean Action Treasury @cetaceanaction.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Senator García calls on @SEMARNAT_mx to prevent #vaquita extinction & restore Gulf of California World Heritage status through law enforcement & permanent population monitoring, stressing environmental policy must reconcile conservation with the well-being of local communities. x.com/CapitalMexi...

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Cetacean Action Treasury @cetaceanaction.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

What marine biologists have learned recently about the left sided behavior & anatomy of harbor porpoise mating might help them breed vaquitas if ever a live male is found injured or stranded & must be taken into captivity: cetacean sexpert Dara Orbach tells @SmithsonianMag

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Cetacean Action Treasury @cetaceanaction.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

SOS: A rare case of scientists recording underwater calls for help. While foraging around a fishing net a young harbor porpoise, a close relative of the #vaquita, became entangled & drowned in about 5 minutes. Another, possibly its mother, stayed nearby calling long afterward.

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Cetacean Action Treasury @cetaceanaction.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Lookin good! The Pronatura Noroeste team thanks welder Javier Meza for his hard work, keeping his cool in the fierce summer heat

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Cetacean Action Treasury @cetaceanaction.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Make yourselves comfortable: the observation deck of the Koipai YuXa citizen science boat is getting a custom-made steel bench for the community #vaquita porpoise observers to take a break from their turn at the Big Eye binoculars

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Cetacean Action Treasury @cetaceanaction.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Thank you Cartin Einhorn @nytimes.com for singling out the vaquita as one of the most challenging to recover, & @rewildorg.bsky.social Barney Long for recognizing supporting local communities is key. bsky.app/profile/reve...

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Cetacean Action Treasury @cetaceanaction.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Santa Clara fishing leader Carlos Tirado: "The US has punished us...we have to go fishery by fishery & show that we do not affect the #vaquita porpoise." Broader community engagement in developing & marketing sustainable non-gillnet fisheries would be an Upper Gulf game-changer.

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