The vaquita are the rarest mammals that live in the sea, and they can only be found in one place: Mexico’s Gulf of California. These remarkable creatures are literally on the brink of extinction, and Mexico’s government is not holding up their end of the agreement to protect them. This is an emergency, and it […]
Tag: illegal fishing
Where do the guitarfish go? Scientists and fishers team up to find out
In late March and early April this year, researchers from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands teamed up with fishers, conservationists and scientists in Guinea-Bissau to catch, study, sample and release more than 50 sharks and rays off the coast of the West African country. The team, which included experts from the Guinea-Bissau-based Institute […]
Vaquita porpoise could survive … but only if illegal fishing stops immediately
Scientists studying the DNA of the world’s smallest cetacean and rarest marine mammal, the vaquita porpoise, have made a surprising and bittersweet discovery. With a tiny population of fewer than 10 individuals left, the mammal was assumed by conservationists to be at a similar risk of harmful mutations and inbreeding as other species with small […]
The Mekong’s fewer than 90 Irrawaddy dolphins at risk of slow and inexorable extinction
Known only by his identity code, ID#35 was the last individual of a doomed subpopulation of freshwater Irrawaddy dolphins (Orcaella brevirostris). He was the sole occupant of a deep pool in the Mekong River that spans the border between Cambodia and Laos, and fought for several weeks against lacerations to his tail from entanglement in […]
As humans close in on their habitat, crocodiles in the Philippines snap back
PALAWAN, Philippines — What do you do if you encounter a saltwater crocodile on your way home? For Roozie Quea Idlana, a resident of the town of Balabac in the Philippines, the answer is simple: Just keep walking. In Idlana’s neighborhood, the houses are built on stilts, tucked within mangrove forests. Encounters with saltwater crocodiles […]
Illegal Fishing Is Devastating Kenya’s Sea Turtles
An alarming number of sea turtles have died over the past year in Marereni, on the central Kenyan coast, raising concerns among conservationists, researchers, and the local community that the animals could soon be eliminated from the region. Equally distressing are the all-too-preventable causes of their decline. According to the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research […]
Latest mass stranding raises concerns for endangered Caspian seals
When Viktor Nikiforov heard about the dead Caspian seals along Russia’s Dagestan coast near the city of Makhachkala, he and a group of researchers went to have a look. On the first day, they found 30 seal bodies strewn across the sand. The next day, they discovered even more. “In three days, we found 170 […]
Sharks on a knife’s edge as Maldives mulls lifting 10-year fishing ban
It’s not easy to find sharks these days. Just ask Demian Chapman, a marine scientist who leads Global FinPrint, a project that assesses shark populations on reefs worldwide. But he says there is a spot where they’re often found: the Maldives, a tiny nation of islands speckled in the Indian Ocean. “The Maldives is a […]