Extinction is imminent for Mexico’s endemic porpoise unless fishery bycatch is eliminated

Barbara L. Taylor; Lorenzo Rojas-Bracho; Jeffrey Moore; Armando Jaramillo-Legorreta; Jay M. Ver Hoef; Gustavo Cardenas-Hinojosa; Edwyna Nieto-Garcia; Jay Barlow; Tim Gerrodette; Nicholas Tregenza; Len Thomas; Philip S. Hammond

doi:10.1111/conl.12331

Extinction is imminent for Mexico’s endemic porpoise unless fishery bycatch is eliminated

Barbara L. Taylor, Lorenzo Rojas-Bracho, Jeffrey Moore, Armando Jaramillo-Legorreta, Jay M. Ver Hoef, Gustavo Cardenas-Hinojosa, Edwyna Nieto-Garcia, Jay Barlow, Tim Gerrodette, Nicholas Tregenza, Len Thomas, Philip S. Hammond

Research output: Contribution to journal › Letter › peer-review

Abstract

The number of Mexico’s endemic porpoise, the vaquita (Phocoena sinus), is collapsing primarily due to bycatch in illegal gillnets set for totoaba (Totoaba macdonaldi), an endangered fish whose swim bladders are exported to China. Previous research estimated that vaquitas declined from about 567 to 245 individuals between 1997 and 2008. Acoustic monitoring between 2011 and 2015 showed a decline of 34%/year. Here, we combine visual line transect and passive acoustic data collected simultaneously in a robust spatial analysis to estimate that only 59 (95% Bayesian Credible Interval [CRI] 22 – 145) vaquita remained as of autumn 2015, a decrease since 1997 of 92% (95% CRI 80%-97%). Risk analysis suggests that if the current, temporary gillnet ban is maintained and effectively enforced, vaquitas could recover to 2008 population levels by 2050. Otherwise, the species is likely to be extinct within a decade.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	588-595
Number of pages	8
Journal	Conservation Letters
Volume	10
Issue number	5
Early online date	5 Dec 2016
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12331
Publication status	Published - 12 Oct 2017

Keywords

Extinction
Illegal fishing
Line transect
Phocoena sinus
Totoaba macdonaldi
Vaquita abundance
Passive acoustic monitoring
C-POD

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10.1111/conl.12331Licence: CC BY

Hammond_2016_CL_MexicoEndemicPorpoise_CC
Copyright and Photocopying: © 2016 The Authors. Conservation Letters published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Final published version, 635 KBLicence: CC BY

Len Thomas
- len.thomasst-andrews.acuk
Person: Academic

Cite this

Taylor, B. L., Rojas-Bracho, L., Moore, J., Jaramillo-Legorreta, A., Ver Hoef, J. M., Cardenas-Hinojosa, G., Nieto-Garcia, E., Barlow, J., Gerrodette, T., Tregenza, N., Thomas, L., & Hammond, P. S. (2017). Extinction is imminent for Mexico’s endemic porpoise unless fishery bycatch is eliminated. Conservation Letters, 10(5), 588-595. https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12331

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title = "Extinction is imminent for Mexico{\textquoteright}s endemic porpoise unless fishery bycatch is eliminated",

abstract = "The number of Mexico{\textquoteright}s endemic porpoise, the vaquita (Phocoena sinus), is collapsing primarily due to bycatch in illegal gillnets set for totoaba (Totoaba macdonaldi), an endangered fish whose swim bladders are exported to China. Previous research estimated that vaquitas declined from about 567 to 245 individuals between 1997 and 2008. Acoustic monitoring between 2011 and 2015 showed a decline of 34%/year. Here, we combine visual line transect and passive acoustic data collected simultaneously in a robust spatial analysis to estimate that only 59 (95% Bayesian Credible Interval [CRI] 22 – 145) vaquita remained as of autumn 2015, a decrease since 1997 of 92% (95% CRI 80%-97%). Risk analysis suggests that if the current, temporary gillnet ban is maintained and effectively enforced, vaquitas could recover to 2008 population levels by 2050. Otherwise, the species is likely to be extinct within a decade.",

keywords = "Extinction, Illegal fishing, Line transect, Phocoena sinus, Totoaba macdonaldi, Vaquita abundance , Passive acoustic monitoring , C-POD",

author = "Taylor, {Barbara L.} and Lorenzo Rojas-Bracho and Jeffrey Moore and Armando Jaramillo-Legorreta and {Ver Hoef}, {Jay M.} and Gustavo Cardenas-Hinojosa and Edwyna Nieto-Garcia and Jay Barlow and Tim Gerrodette and Nicholas Tregenza and Len Thomas and Hammond, {Philip S.}",

note = "Primary funding was by Secretaria del Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (Secretario R. Pacchiano). Mexican support was from SEMARNAT, CONABIO, CONANP, PROFEPA, SEMAR, and WWF-Mexico. US support from NOAA-Fisheries-SWFSC and The Marine Mammal Center.",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - Extinction is imminent for Mexico’s endemic porpoise unless fishery bycatch is eliminated

AU - Taylor, Barbara L.

AU - Rojas-Bracho, Lorenzo

AU - Moore, Jeffrey

AU - Jaramillo-Legorreta, Armando

AU - Ver Hoef, Jay M.

AU - Cardenas-Hinojosa, Gustavo

AU - Nieto-Garcia, Edwyna

AU - Barlow, Jay

AU - Gerrodette, Tim

AU - Tregenza, Nicholas

AU - Thomas, Len

AU - Hammond, Philip S.

N1 - Primary funding was by Secretaria del Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (Secretario R. Pacchiano). Mexican support was from SEMARNAT, CONABIO, CONANP, PROFEPA, SEMAR, and WWF-Mexico. US support from NOAA-Fisheries-SWFSC and The Marine Mammal Center.

PY - 2017/10/12

Y1 - 2017/10/12

N2 - The number of Mexico’s endemic porpoise, the vaquita (Phocoena sinus), is collapsing primarily due to bycatch in illegal gillnets set for totoaba (Totoaba macdonaldi), an endangered fish whose swim bladders are exported to China. Previous research estimated that vaquitas declined from about 567 to 245 individuals between 1997 and 2008. Acoustic monitoring between 2011 and 2015 showed a decline of 34%/year. Here, we combine visual line transect and passive acoustic data collected simultaneously in a robust spatial analysis to estimate that only 59 (95% Bayesian Credible Interval [CRI] 22 – 145) vaquita remained as of autumn 2015, a decrease since 1997 of 92% (95% CRI 80%-97%). Risk analysis suggests that if the current, temporary gillnet ban is maintained and effectively enforced, vaquitas could recover to 2008 population levels by 2050. Otherwise, the species is likely to be extinct within a decade.

AB - The number of Mexico’s endemic porpoise, the vaquita (Phocoena sinus), is collapsing primarily due to bycatch in illegal gillnets set for totoaba (Totoaba macdonaldi), an endangered fish whose swim bladders are exported to China. Previous research estimated that vaquitas declined from about 567 to 245 individuals between 1997 and 2008. Acoustic monitoring between 2011 and 2015 showed a decline of 34%/year. Here, we combine visual line transect and passive acoustic data collected simultaneously in a robust spatial analysis to estimate that only 59 (95% Bayesian Credible Interval [CRI] 22 – 145) vaquita remained as of autumn 2015, a decrease since 1997 of 92% (95% CRI 80%-97%). Risk analysis suggests that if the current, temporary gillnet ban is maintained and effectively enforced, vaquitas could recover to 2008 population levels by 2050. Otherwise, the species is likely to be extinct within a decade.

KW - Extinction

KW - Illegal fishing

KW - Line transect

KW - Phocoena sinus

KW - Totoaba macdonaldi

KW - Vaquita abundance

KW - Passive acoustic monitoring

KW - C-POD

U2 - 10.1111/conl.12331

DO - 10.1111/conl.12331

M3 - Letter

SN - 1755-263X

VL - 10

SP - 588

EP - 595

JO - Conservation Letters

JF - Conservation Letters

IS - 5

ER -

Extinction is imminent for Mexico’s endemic porpoise unless fishery bycatch is eliminated

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Keywords

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Len Thomas

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