Cetacean Action Treasury
@cetaceanaction
Rescuing the vaquita porpoise and securing a sustainable fishing future for the Upper Gulf of California with Mexican partners. www.cetact.org
1/2 Today is International #Vaquita Day, & our San Felipe team celebrated in the best way possible by going out & searching for the world's rarest porpoises, building their new marine monitoring, conservation & stewardship skills one #VaquitaMarina day at a time x.com/PronaturaNo...
Technical training underway for San Felipe team including @pescaabc @PronaturaNoroes as first responders 🆘 for stranding & entanglement rescue of marine wildlife *cetaceans🐬🐋 *sea lions 🦭 *sea turtles 🐢 by Mexico Marine Wildlife Rescue Center with support from @CONANP_mx 🙏
2/2 We are also proud to support @taniavaldiviac as she continues her pioneering efforts to develop eDNA as a tool for #vaquita monitoring, building upon her previous success finding traces of the world's rarest marine mammal in seawater
1/2 English subtitles for @ernesto_mendez reporting on the May #vaquita porpoise community observers training in which we participated & supported @PronaturaNoroes @pescaabc Given waves from windy weather & novices behind the big binox, 3 sightings in 10 days is a good result! x.com/i/status/20...
Gillnets for lenguado are a *big* entanglement risk for #vaquita- literally. @SeaShepherdSSCS removed one 1500 meters long & 9 meters high in Feb. We are thrilled that @pescaabc is developing an ikejime premium price longline fishery for this species to incentivize gear change!
Also the results map posted by @SeaShepherdSSCS shows that full protection is urgent for the part of the #Vaquita Refuge northwest of the Zero Tolerance Area (blue) & its Extension Area (yellow), where there are hooked anti-gillnet devices on the seafloor seashepherd.org/2026/07/10/...
Although only 3 sightings & no photos during 10 windy May days of the #vaquita porpoise local observer training, a clear result is that the community engagement & responsibility our partners are building is a solid foundation for continuous monitoring, including acoustics & eDNA
This month San Felipe city & @Cultura_BC are running a #vaquita porpoise art contest for students - drawing for preschool, poetry for primary & secondary. The winning poems will be turned into songs with the winning drawing as cover art. Books & art workshops are other prizes.
Video explainer of recent sea lion rescues on Roca Consag island by Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
When Juan Zapata can spare time from sea lion disentanglements with Pesca ABC & making San Felipe cleaner (leading daily trash patrols all over town including top of El Machorro hill) & healthier (fitness & fight sport training & Juanisimo's Nutribar), he helps with CAT's Facebook page 🔥
San Felipe mayor & Baja state governor met with @SEMARNAT_mx leadership in Mexicali in collaboration towards a long-term sustainable development plan to protect the environment & improve people's quality of life through productive diversification. x.com/i/status/20...
While you were sleeping... three women are rowing across 2,800 miles of Pacific Ocean in a boat named Vaquita 💪💪💪💪💪💪 rowforlifepacific.org.uk/the-challenge
Viko's #vaquita book blends journalism & essay, based on interviews & scientific, historical & academic documents. It addresses the species' characteristics as well as the immense challenge facing the survival of this endemic porpoise of Mexico's Upper Gulf of California.
The women of Pesca ABC & Pronatura Noroeste put their best fish forward at yesterday's first San Felipe Curvina Festival - well done! 🤝
San Felipe mayor Jose Dagnino urges President Sheinbaum to support the new municipality in solving its key challenge: impact of federal protection measures for endangered endemic species #vaquita & totoaba of the Upper Gulf "a region of great environmental value for the country"
"The future is in the hands of those who explore... & from all the beauty they discover while crossing perpetually receding frontiers, they develop for nature & for humankind an infinite love" -Jacques Cousteau San Felipe community monitors searching for #vaquitas this morning
1/2 Hong Kong makes first publicly reported seizure anywhere in the world this year (including Mexico) of #totoaba swim bladders, hidden in a shipment of frozen fish fillets bound for Vietnam. @ernesto_mendez sources say poaching is rampant south of San Felipe #vaquita habitat. x.com/i/status/20...
Our friend & author Viko Rodriguez has been invited by @CONANP_mx to present a reading from his book, Odisea for the #Vaquita. His 254 page book in Spanish can be downloaded from Baja state government at the link below as a 2025 State Literature prize winner.
Today's #WorldSeaTurtleDay with good news from San Felipe! An adult female green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) reported by tourists entangled in a fishing net on Campo 1 beach was freed, checked, tagged & released by technician from local sea turtle protection group & authorities
Polydactyly (a tiny extra flipper nubbin for a total of 6 digits) is a thing in #vaquita porpoises, probably related to very small population size. Marked with red arrow in 1966 X-rays, they were subsequently lost from the female's skeleton & so aren't captured in the 3D digital database.
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society video of the ghost net removal
It's good that only a 30 meter portion of a very old ghost net was found June 4 as part of World Environment Day in San Felipe. Main eentanglement risk to #vaquita porpoise remains fishers actively using gillnets in the Vaquita Refuge from fall to spring, every good day & night. x.com/i/status/20...
Our partners @pescaabc @PronaturaNoroes will be at San Felipe's first Curvina Food Festival June 20, cooking the best seafood in town: Hook & line 🎣 #Vaquita-safe 🐬 Humane ikejima fish kill 🪡 Traceable blockchain provenance Sanitary icing all the way from boat to plant 🧊 x.com/i/status/20...
Today 33d anniversary of Upper Gulf of California & Colorado River Delta Biosphere Reserve. 1993 #vaquita abundance estimate: 224. It doubled in 1997 when experts found more porpoises near San Felipe, but downhill 📉 ever since from banned gillnets, visible onboard poster pangas
At yesterday's panel on the Upper Gulf of California at @CONANP_mx World Oceans Day Festival led by @PronaturaNoroes & @cedo_mex, women leaders from San Felipe & Santa Clara emphasized that effective solutions to conservation challenges depend on direct community participation.
2026 theme of today's UN Oceans Day is Reimagine. Here's a story from last June #UNOC3 with one of @pescaabc @PronaturaNoroes hook & line fishers, reimagining that "if we respect, we will surely see a San Felipe like the one 20 years ago, full of fish in the sea" And #vaquitas.