Cetacean Action Treasury
@cetaceanaction.bsky.social
Rescuing the vaquita porpoise and securing a sustainable fishing future for the Upper Gulf of California with Mexican partners.
www.cetact.org
www.cetact.org
At @CITES #COP20 Mexico will be requested to "effectively prevent fishers from using gillnets in the #Vaquita Refuge & vessels from entering the Zero Tolerance Area & maintain these areas completely gillnet-free" but this won't happen without real change in fishing gear & markets
November 17, 2025 at 12:25 PM
Good long read on 2025 #vaquita survey results, context & implications
Exciting sighting of "a mother & calf close enough to see with the naked eye, doesn’t happen very often as they’re really, really difficult to see. If there’s any swell they just disappear. Plus, there's only a few of them left"
Exciting sighting of "a mother & calf close enough to see with the naked eye, doesn’t happen very often as they’re really, really difficult to see. If there’s any swell they just disappear. Plus, there's only a few of them left"
November 16, 2025 at 1:43 PM
Good long read on 2025 #vaquita survey results, context & implications
Exciting sighting of "a mother & calf close enough to see with the naked eye, doesn’t happen very often as they’re really, really difficult to see. If there’s any swell they just disappear. Plus, there's only a few of them left"
Exciting sighting of "a mother & calf close enough to see with the naked eye, doesn’t happen very often as they’re really, really difficult to see. If there’s any swell they just disappear. Plus, there's only a few of them left"
A first in #vaquita habitat, making progress for environmental education - some of the crafts & souvenirs made from recycled fishing nets & beach cleanup plastic trash in the Upper Gulf, supported by CONANP, Pronatura Noroeste & Pesca ABC
November 15, 2025 at 11:53 AM
A first in #vaquita habitat, making progress for environmental education - some of the crafts & souvenirs made from recycled fishing nets & beach cleanup plastic trash in the Upper Gulf, supported by CONANP, Pronatura Noroeste & Pesca ABC
1/3 Amazing @nmas #vaquita retrospective with film from 30 years ago, interviewing Caterina D'Agrosa, lead researcher on the only study to properly quantify the level of gillnet bycatch. Entanglement was all too common, & fishers were willing to bring the carcasses back to her.
x.com/nmas/status...
x.com/nmas/status...
November 14, 2025 at 12:03 PM
1/3 Amazing @nmas #vaquita retrospective with film from 30 years ago, interviewing Caterina D'Agrosa, lead researcher on the only study to properly quantify the level of gillnet bycatch. Entanglement was all too common, & fishers were willing to bring the carcasses back to her.
x.com/nmas/status...
x.com/nmas/status...
for now, is reduce gillnet ban area from 10,000 km2 area on paper to an approximation of the Vaquita Refuge area in reality. Such a compromise between science & community, while still risky, is much less so than fishers w vaquita-safe gear permits gillnetting all around the ZTA.
November 13, 2025 at 5:50 PM
for now, is reduce gillnet ban area from 10,000 km2 area on paper to an approximation of the Vaquita Refuge area in reality. Such a compromise between science & community, while still risky, is much less so than fishers w vaquita-safe gear permits gillnetting all around the ZTA.
Viral video is one of dozens of Upper Gulf fishers making new shrimp gillnets. It's illegal to make them & use them, but because everyone is doing it, no one is punished. And they shouldn't be, they obviously are not criminals & not seeking to cause harm to #vaquita. Solution ⬇️
November 13, 2025 at 5:49 PM
Viral video is one of dozens of Upper Gulf fishers making new shrimp gillnets. It's illegal to make them & use them, but because everyone is doing it, no one is punished. And they shouldn't be, they obviously are not criminals & not seeking to cause harm to #vaquita. Solution ⬇️
It's encouraging to see Upper Gulf #vaquita safe fishing gear & policy high on CONAPESCA Commissioner's agenda & joint work with SEMARNAT
November 12, 2025 at 12:31 PM
It's encouraging to see Upper Gulf #vaquita safe fishing gear & policy high on CONAPESCA Commissioner's agenda & joint work with SEMARNAT
The return of the Koipai Yuxa is in its Cucapá name, Departing & Returning With Eyes On The Water, chosen by a 2004 children's regional school contest, & its mission, a living remembrance & working legacy of its designer, #vaquita acoustic monitoring & citizen science pioneer Armando Jaramillo
November 11, 2025 at 1:34 PM
The return of the Koipai Yuxa is in its Cucapá name, Departing & Returning With Eyes On The Water, chosen by a 2004 children's regional school contest, & its mission, a living remembrance & working legacy of its designer, #vaquita acoustic monitoring & citizen science pioneer Armando Jaramillo
3/4 Acoustic & visual monitoring provides scientific backing for government dialogue with fishing community, says @SEMARNAT_mx @mroblesg, on adjusting rules for specialized protection zones in the short term, & builds the knowledge for the long term perspective for full recovery
November 10, 2025 at 10:09 PM
3/4 Acoustic & visual monitoring provides scientific backing for government dialogue with fishing community, says @SEMARNAT_mx @mroblesg, on adjusting rules for specialized protection zones in the short term, & builds the knowledge for the long term perspective for full recovery
2/4 & to guide selection of visual search areas as partners work to develop observation capability aboard original Upper Gulf #vaquita research vessel Koipai Yuxa, covered 21 years ago by @RafaGuadarrama, back in San Felipe thanks to #ENDESU @CONANP_mx @PronaturaNoroes @cedo_mex
November 10, 2025 at 10:09 PM
1/4 Engaging San Felipeans in citizen science & technology to build skills, pride & responsibility for #vaquita porpoise has 2 parts, covered by @AnaC_Olvera 1) @pescaabc supports @CONANP_mx acoustic monitoring in known high use areas & if reoccupying former range (distribution)
x.com/CanalOnceTV...
x.com/CanalOnceTV...
November 10, 2025 at 10:09 PM
1/4 Engaging San Felipeans in citizen science & technology to build skills, pride & responsibility for #vaquita porpoise has 2 parts, covered by @AnaC_Olvera 1) @pescaabc supports @CONANP_mx acoustic monitoring in known high use areas & if reoccupying former range (distribution)
x.com/CanalOnceTV...
x.com/CanalOnceTV...
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society video of freeing sea lions from strangling loops of fishing net around their necks on Rocas Consag island in the #Vaquita Refuge with Pesca ABC, PROFEPA & CABET Rescate Lobos Marinos
November 9, 2025 at 6:41 PM
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society video of freeing sea lions from strangling loops of fishing net around their necks on Rocas Consag island in the #Vaquita Refuge with Pesca ABC, PROFEPA & CABET Rescate Lobos Marinos
5/5 "With the May-Sept 2025 data we aim to understand where vaquitas are, how many remain inside & outside ZTA & how they are currently distributed. Since 1997, year after year, we have managed to see or detect vaquitas, even during the most critical moments in their history"
November 8, 2025 at 12:39 PM
5/5 "With the May-Sept 2025 data we aim to understand where vaquitas are, how many remain inside & outside ZTA & how they are currently distributed. Since 1997, year after year, we have managed to see or detect vaquitas, even during the most critical moments in their history"
4/5 "A floating classroom: 17 young San Felipeans apprenticed in visual observations, learning alongside us how to detect & track vaquitas. Coordinated by @CONANP_mx to link science & Upper Gulf communities, creating a new generation of local monitors committed to conservation."
November 8, 2025 at 12:39 PM
4/5 "A floating classroom: 17 young San Felipeans apprenticed in visual observations, learning alongside us how to detect & track vaquitas. Coordinated by @CONANP_mx to link science & Upper Gulf communities, creating a new generation of local monitors committed to conservation."
3/5 "May 4-Sept 9 survey to record vaquita echolocation clicks, determine its current distribution & estimate abundance based on these sounds. Every 2 weeks, we worked w San Felipe fishers who placed & retrieved hydrophones at 60-80 sampling sites until study area was covered."
x.com/ernesto_men...
x.com/ernesto_men...
November 8, 2025 at 12:38 PM
3/5 "May 4-Sept 9 survey to record vaquita echolocation clicks, determine its current distribution & estimate abundance based on these sounds. Every 2 weeks, we worked w San Felipe fishers who placed & retrieved hydrophones at 60-80 sampling sites until study area was covered."
x.com/ernesto_men...
x.com/ernesto_men...
2/5 "The conditions at sea were challenging, with rough seas & constant wind, but we achieved more than double the sightings compared to 2024, allowing us to confirm the presence of at least seven to ten different vaquitas both inside & outside the Zero Tolerance Area zone."
November 8, 2025 at 12:38 PM
2/5 "The conditions at sea were challenging, with rough seas & constant wind, but we achieved more than double the sightings compared to 2024, allowing us to confirm the presence of at least seven to ten different vaquitas both inside & outside the Zero Tolerance Area zone."
1/5 Gustavo Cárdenas Hinojosa, Barbara Taylor & Lorenzo Rojas-Bracho write of their long struggle together to save the #vaquita porpoise from extinction via gillnet entanglement & why results of their 2025 research give them hope
x.com/AristeguiOn...
x.com/AristeguiOn...
November 8, 2025 at 12:38 PM
1/5 Gustavo Cárdenas Hinojosa, Barbara Taylor & Lorenzo Rojas-Bracho write of their long struggle together to save the #vaquita porpoise from extinction via gillnet entanglement & why results of their 2025 research give them hope
x.com/AristeguiOn...
x.com/AristeguiOn...
More fabu @FabianRguez94 drone footage from September #vaquita porpoise survey, a single adult
*💚💙 the changing palette of blues & greens of the Upper Gulf sea water*
*💚💙 the changing palette of blues & greens of the Upper Gulf sea water*
November 7, 2025 at 12:15 PM
More fabu @FabianRguez94 drone footage from September #vaquita porpoise survey, a single adult
*💚💙 the changing palette of blues & greens of the Upper Gulf sea water*
*💚💙 the changing palette of blues & greens of the Upper Gulf sea water*
November 6, 2025 at 12:31 PM
Awesome that United Nations Development Program @PNUD_Mexico is supporting #vaquita expert Lorenzo Rojas-Bracho & @CONANP_mx hydrophones for their acoustic monitoring program
x.com/ernesto_men...
x.com/ernesto_men...
November 6, 2025 at 12:30 PM
Awesome that United Nations Development Program @PNUD_Mexico is supporting #vaquita expert Lorenzo Rojas-Bracho & @CONANP_mx hydrophones for their acoustic monitoring program
x.com/ernesto_men...
x.com/ernesto_men...
Commissioner of @Conapesca @RigoSalgadoV has been holding key consultations re: urgent measures his agency needs to take to support & transition Upper Gulf communities to legal sustainable fishing, stop illegal gillnetting in #vaquita habitat & resolve intl sanctions on Mexico.
November 4, 2025 at 11:43 AM
Commissioner of @Conapesca @RigoSalgadoV has been holding key consultations re: urgent measures his agency needs to take to support & transition Upper Gulf communities to legal sustainable fishing, stop illegal gillnetting in #vaquita habitat & resolve intl sanctions on Mexico.
The extensive acoustic monitoring efforts of the summer of 2025 leave no doubt that #vaquita now occur well north of the ZTA in the Refuge, but during the visual survey there were only two days with optimal calm Beaufort conditions for searches there & none were seen
November 3, 2025 at 11:27 AM
The extensive acoustic monitoring efforts of the summer of 2025 leave no doubt that #vaquita now occur well north of the ZTA in the Refuge, but during the visual survey there were only two days with optimal calm Beaufort conditions for searches there & none were seen