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Vaquita warns us about sharks: lessons for the ocean's future · How To Protect The Ocean

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  Picture this an entire species.
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  The Vaquita, a small porus in the Gulf of California is on the
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  verge of disappearing forever.
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  Fewer than 20.
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  Individuals remain.
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  And while this tragedy unfolds, it holds up a mirror to another unfolding crisis.
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  The decline of sharks across our oceans.
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  So what if the vaquitas fate isn't just their story?
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  It's a glimpse into our own future.
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  We're gonna be talking about that on today's episode of the How
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  to Protect the Ocean Podcast.
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  Let's start the show.
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  Hey everybody.
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  Welcome back to another exciting episode of the How to Protect the Ocean Podcast.
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  I'm your host, Andrew Lewin, and this is the podcast where you find
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  out what's happening with the ocean, how you could speak up for the
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  ocean, and what you could do to live for better ocean by taking action.
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  Today I'm diving into a powerful article by marine biologist and friend and
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  writer, Melissa Christina Marquez.
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  She wrote an article in Forbes, which explores what the vaquitas decline warns
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  us about sharks and the lesson is stark.
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  It's urgent and deeply personal because when ecosystems
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  unravel, we feel the impact.
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  If you want to find out the whole article, you can find out by just clicking the
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  description if you're watching this on YouTube or in the show notes because
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  the article will be there from Forbes.
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  So I'll be sure to post that.
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  'cause I always wanna make sure that the people who write the articles get
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  the credit and get read, not just listen to me like sp on about the article.
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  Very much go to the article and read it because not only is Melissa a great
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  writer, but the story is very important.
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  So I've talked about the Vaquita a number of times on this podcast,
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  but I'm gonna give essentially a description of what's going on.
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  So the Vaquita is probably the most endangered marine mammal in the world.
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  living in only one part of Mexico's upper Gulf of California or
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  Sea of Cortez is also known as.
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  Now, its population has plummeted due to gillnet entanglement in illegal fisheries
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  targeting another species, the toto alba.
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  And this fish is a large fish that is huge and is very easily to consume.
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  but it's also used in Asian countries for specific medicinal purposes,
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  which hasn't been actually proven in any kind of medicinal scientific
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  journals or scientific studies.
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  It's just a cultural thing.
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  And so this fish, this total alba is something that a lot of people want.
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  And so to be able to get it, they have to use gill nets to be able
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  to catch it or that's how they use it to be able to catch it.
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  And then the vaquita actually gets stuck within the gill nets, which
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  happens to a lot of marine mammals, not just the Vaquita, but in this
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  case, the Vaquita has been, you know, a huge part of this bycatch within
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  the fisheries, which is catch that you don't intend to catch within a
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  specific gear, but you catch it anyway.
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  And it can actually cause a lot of problems for that population,
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  which it has for this poor vaquita.
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  Now vaquita is an elusive animal, so it's very difficult to monitor.
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  So when I say, you know, there's 20 individuals left,
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  there's probably actually less.
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  Last estimate that I saw it was probably 10.
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  And so there's even less now, and it's very difficult to find
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  out if they've actually grown in population or less in a population.
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  We just know that we don't see them as much as we used to.
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  So there's been, like awareness campaigns and protective measures put in place.
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  Unfortunately the efforts came too late.
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  Like even the Gulf of the government of Mexico put in navy ships to help
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  take away the threat of gill nets.
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  We even had the sea shepherd conservation organization come
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  in and have their own boats to monitor for gill net use.
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  The problem was, is you're bordering these poor fishing villages who know
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  they can get money for these fish.
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  When some of them put out, not all of them, of course, when they put out
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  their gill ness and they catch these fish, they get a lot of money for it.
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  Then what happened is apparently organized crime got involved and that makes it
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  even more complex to stop this problem because once organized crime gets
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  involved, especially within a country like Mexico, you get cartels involved.
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  It becomes a very difficult thing to stop.
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  And so unfortunately, that bycatch from the vaquita just
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  continues to continue, continue.
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  And Eventually what's gonna happen is, you know, people are like, it's
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  probably too late for the vaquita.
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  We don't wanna lose hope.
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  I say this with a caveat, we never wanna lose hope.
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  We always want to bring them back from the brink.
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  But to be in a realistic framework and mindset.
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  It's probably too late for the vaquita.
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  However, there are a lot of organizations, a lot of individuals that are
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  working to stop that from happening.
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  So I don't want to dismiss their efforts and their ongoing efforts to do so.
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  But there is a very big problem with the vaquita and there is
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  a chance that we might lose the vaquita to extinction because of us.
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  It's another reason.
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  It's because of us.
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  But the Vaquita also stands as a symbol for what happens
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  when conservation is delayed.
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  And when we don't act in time or when we don't act with enough
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  effort, we get problems coming in and stemming in from inaction, which
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  happens a lot within conservation.
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  By the time, sometimes we find out about a particular decline in a
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  particular species or in a habitat.
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  Sometimes it's already too late to bring in action.
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  Or some people will just be like, well, we're not gonna bring in action.
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  ' cause it takes a lot of times because when humans are involved,
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  there's usually money involved.
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  There's usually a reason, like it's probably supporting something may
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  be a community or something else.
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  And you need to really make sure that you conservation on point, but it's also
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  working properly with local communities.
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  Now, here's where sharks come in, because you're probably like, Andrew,
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  you're talking about marine mammals.
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  How is this involved with sharks?
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  Well, the warning for sharks, so the same forces that threaten Vaquitas, which is
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  bycatch, overfishing and weak enforcement are pushing sharks towards collapse.
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  So as an example, you see a lot of people along coastal villages.
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  In Africa that are very much remote and you don't really see what's happening
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  and you start to see them fish for guitar fish or wedge fish that I learned in our
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  podcast on Beyond Jaws with David Ebert.
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  We covered a symposium for about a month that was happening online where we talked
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  how a lot of fishing nations, a lot of fishing communities will fish for sharks
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  because that's what they eat and they need to survive and they need to sell the meat
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  for food because they need to survive.
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  Without identifying those communities and working with those communities
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  to understand why they eat what they eat, and maybe find different ways
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  for them to make money, or for them to consume fish of different sorts,
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  it takes a long time to get in there.
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  Having that threat of bycatch, overfishing and weak enforcement and
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  the lack of knowledge of the customs and understanding of the ways of each local
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  community, which are unique within each ones, makes it very difficult to fish.
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  Now, it's not just local communities that are giving problems that eat sharks.
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  There's a lot of larger corporations that run boats that are sort of commercial
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  type of trawlers or long liners and that they just take the shark meat, cut it up.
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  When they come in for inspection, you won't see that
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  the sharks you can't recognize.
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  Sometimes it looks like tuna and so you just don't know what it is.
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  It could be sharp, but you have no idea.
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  So the fact is, is sharks are declining because of fisheries.
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  When you look at most of the estimates of sharks dying, it's because of overfishing.
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  It's because of weak enforcements.
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  It's because of bycatch, and sharks are critical top predators
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  that regulate ecosystems.
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  They regulate the food web.
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  Their decline has cascading effects.
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  So altering the food web and destabilizing marine life is not a
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  good thing for a marine ecosystem.
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  The author Melissa Marquez, she draws a direct line like inaction that doom.
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  The vaquitas could also doom sharks if we wait too long.
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  So, for example, we covered a story here on the podcast through Monga Bay.
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  We had Monga Bay.
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  Come on.
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  We talked about a huge article that actually made it to.
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  Legislation like the legislative body in Brazil.
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  Not only schools but public sector.
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  So nursing homes or older age living homes, I guess is what you
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  call them, as well as prisons.
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  Were buying shark meat to serve at regular meals.
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  So, you know, not only is it not good for the individuals who are eating
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  it, because there's a lot of arsenic, there's a lot of mercury within sharks.
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  And so eating that on a regular basis could harm their health.
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  But it's also, there's no management at con like what type of shark?
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  we noticed that the article identified there were angel sharks
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  within there that are endangered.
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  And so there were a lot of problems with these types of animals
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  that were being caught and they weren't being managed and they weren't
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  being counted and they weren't being monitored, and they weren't being
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  regulated, and they could just get any type of shark and that's gonna
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  decrease the populations over time.
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  Especially feeding all these public sector works that need this type of food
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  or that needs food and they're using in the wrong kind of style of food.
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  So here's the thing, there's a problem of acting too late.
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  So, you know, conservation often follows crisis and not prevention.
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  We're not going after it at the beginning or understanding that there
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  could be specific problems with this.
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  We're not monitoring sharks on a regular basis.
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  We're only monitoring on a reactive approach, not a proactive approach.
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  And then the article also warns that by the time the laws are
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  tightened or enforcement strengthens.
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  Populations may already be beyond recovery, just like the vaquita.
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  So the Vaquita teaches us to be proactive.
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  Early measures and not reactionary ones are the only way to
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  avoid irreversible losses.
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  So getting out ahead of it.
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  So looking at your coastline as a government or as an area
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  local community being like.
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  What do we have in here?
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  Let's just take an inventory of what do we have, what do we have a lot
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  of, what do we not see a lot of?
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  And then do the management from there.
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  Sometimes you can have local scientists or you know, partner up
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  with larger organizations or even smaller ones to help you with that.
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  And I think that's a really important one.
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  And then the call to change is governments and industries must invest in
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  monitoring, regulation and enforcement.
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  before sharks reach like the vaquita, like levels of decline.
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  So the public support, consumer choices and pressure on decision makers are key.
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  This is where you come in.
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  If you like sharks.
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  A lot of people do.
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  We like watching shark documentaries.
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  We like watching our shark movies like shark, NATO and stuff like that
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  because we like learning about sharks.
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  We all want to know about sharks.
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  It's something that we love to hate, but we also love them as well.
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  There's a lot more people who love sharks and understand their importance, but
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  they don't know how to protect them.
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  That goes to, even here in Canada, you know, voting for people who
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  will vote for pro-environment type of ecosystem health, right?
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  Whether they're a business person, a lawyer, and economist.
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  You have to talk to them about what's important to you, and
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  if the ocean's important.
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  I don't care if you live in Ontario.
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  I don't care if you live in the Midwest and in the US or in England or in Ireland
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  or Scotland or anywhere in Europe.
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  If you live inland or along the coast, the ocean is important to all of us,
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  and it's important for those bodies that are in charge of putting in
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  regulations to be able to do that.
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  'cause even if you live in a country where there's a coast, I have three coasts.
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  I have the longest coast in the world.
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  Just because my MP is in Burlington, Ontario, where I live doesn't mean that
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  it's not important for them to know about what's going on along the coastlines.
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  That's very important.
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  The story hits me, not only as a marine biologist, but as a person.
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  Like the Vaquita is not just a porus, it's a warning sign.
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  It's something that hits me and be like, we could lose this
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  species because of inaction.
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  Right?
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  Not taking the proper steps, not saying, Hey, you know what, we
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  need to actually do something.
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  It's a conservation loss.
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  It's a huge, huge loss, and I want you to think of it this way.
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  The ocean is like a safety net.
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  Right, that it protects humanity.
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  You know, it gives us food, oxygen.
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  Every second breath goes to our breathing, our oxygen levels, climate stability.
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  Every time species like slips through the cracks, the net weakens
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  and the vaquitas near extinction tells us that waiting is deadly.
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  If we wait and we, you know, do inaction.
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  It's not gonna help us.
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  This is where it gets personal for you.
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  If sharks collapse, seafood industries change, you may like the change.
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  You may not like the change.
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  Coral reefs decline and coastal communities lose natural
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  protection because they don't have coral reefs, right?
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  It's not just about the ocean like out there.
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  It's about your dinner plate.
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  It's about your beach vacation.
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  It's about your storm protection.
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  It's about your children's inheritance of a stable planet.
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  This is where it all counts.
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  Having a loss like sharks or shark species is going to be a terrible loss.
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  Now, there are some organizations and lots of researchers and lots of
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  governments who are doing the right thing.
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  If you look at the emergence of great white sharks in certain areas
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  or whales in other areas, we are seeing conservation successes.
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  The manatee down in South Florida was a conservation success up until recently.
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  Things ebb and flow, but action actually helps putting together monitoring
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  plans actually help putting species on the endangered species list or
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  on a list where they can't be traded internationally helps protect them and
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  to make sure that their stocks remain stable or at least get to a point where
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  they could be stable in and of itself.
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  So the fate of the key to, it's heartbreaking.
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  There's no doubt about that, but it's a story that can serve as a
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  turning point if we actually listen.
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  Sharks are the next test.
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  We are seeing a huge decline.
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  We can't just keep saying, Hey, there are 200 million estimate,
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  200 million sharks die every year.
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  ' cause eventually we're gonna run out.
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  There's a tipping point.
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  And if we wait until the numbers are as low as the vaquita is, or we will
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  act like, people are like, well, how come there's not still time where
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  people ask like, why didn't you do anything when we had the time before?
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  So this is a big step for us, like this is the way you need to think about the
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  ocean is don't wait till it's too late.
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  Be proactive as a voter, as somebody who lives in a democratic society.
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  And you have that say with the government, make sure there's regulation
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  and make sure you support research.
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  Make sure you speak to scientists who are out there talking on a level like
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  I am, or even bigger or even smaller.
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  These are the people who see these trends all the time and are out
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  there trying to make you aware of the good and the bad that's out there.
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  So make sure you listen to them and I think that's really important.
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  So that's it for today's episode.
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  I want it to be a little bit of a quicker one.
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  And I wanna thank you so much for listening to this episode of How
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  to Protect the Ocean If you want to comment, you can do so in the
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  YouTube comments or down below.
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  If you're listening to this on your favorite podcast app like just the
• 13:27
  audio version, you can go to Instagram and DM me at How to Protect the Ocean.
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  Or you can go to speak up for blue.com/contact, fill out the form
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  that goes right to my personal email.
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  I'd be happy to chat with you from there.
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  I wanna thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of the
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  How to Protect the Ocean Podcast.
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  I'm your host, Andrew Lewin.
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  From the True Nord, strong and free.
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  Have a great day.
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  We'll talk to you next time in Happy Conservation.