Vaquita warns us about sharks: lessons for the ocean’s future

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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

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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.