In May and October of 2017 we joined forces with the International Committee for the Recovery of the Vaquita (CIRVA), and Monterey Bay Diving to locate and remove illegal gillnets from the critical vaquita porpoise habitat in the Gulf of California.
The vaquita’s proximity to extinction is due to illegal fishing activity and the resulting abandoned gillnets, known as ghost nets.
The team set out early each morning to scan the water for discarded fishing nets
Nylon gillnets intended to catch a fish called the totoaba, a critically endangered species sold illegally in China where their swim bladder is prized for use in traditional medicine, entangle and drown the vaquita.
