The Last Vaquita?
- Thread starter jerry
- Start date
Jungle Jim
Guest
A little about fishing with nets around Puerto Penasco........
I'll not get in to the trawlers here as I've been over it plenty in previous posts.
Depending on what type high profile collateral kill being discussed, Vaquitas, Totoabas, or Sea Turtles the comercial pangas boats are the worst offenders. They typically use two types of monofilament based nets, tangle nets for shrimp and gill nets for fish.
The tangle type is basically a curtain of loosely matted mono with a few knots here and there to keep it sheet like when draped along a line suspended with soda pop bottle floats. The rig may be anchored a one end to keep it from drifting with the extreme local tides, or have a radio beacon on the rig using a stick or length of pvc pipe. This type of rig is what brings in most of the super-sized Gulf Blue Shrimp and they are usually set in relatively shallow water and don't reach the bottom. The shrimp come up from the bottom at night and feed on plankton. Do a night dive on any sandy bottom out there to observe this. I've had pretty good luck catching them at night off of Sandy Beach with a powerful dive light and a live bait net.
The swimming feeding shrimp contact the loose monofilament and their spiny heads, tails and legs get entangled and that's were they stay until the pangueros return the next day and pull em up. Back in the 70's I would get good hauls from the pangueros after getting them to come to shore as they were returning to their camps to unload. Even in those days they never had any sort of exceptional hauls, maybe forty or fifty big shrimp. Few if any of those huge shrimp are ever available in RP as they are worth much more to when sold to the overseas customers. I don't believe the tangle nets are responsible for very much by-catch as they are checked daily and are relatively visible to passing fish. They do catch diving birds, especially Loons and Grebes seeking smaller fish and shrimp.
Gill nets are a whole other issue. The gill net as the name suggests catches fish after their heads pass through a pre-determined opening of monofilament then if they try to back out they are stopped and held in place by their gills. Now of course this won't catch every fish that comes in contact since a lot of fish have heads bigger than their bodies or are small enough to just swim through the opening. Gill nets target certain types of fish and in the northern Sea of Cortez those fish are Corvinas and their big cousin the Totoaba. Last summer I saw the pangueros at El Jaguey coming in with hundreds of pounds of Corvinas on every boat. Every fish was almost the exact same size as they were limited by the size of the holes in the gill nets.
They had a few Sierras, Mexican Barracudas and Cabrillas but 99% of the catch was Corvinas. Another thing to consider is that the fish that they are targeting are all migrating schooling types. Just imagine what a Sea Lion does when it comes across a half mile of gill net loaded with fresh fish. Just go out to Isla San Jorge to see the results, there are always a few Sea Lions there, especially younger ones with a bloody necklace of monofilament cutting through their skins facing certain death.
Well, I gotta throw some fresh Sea Lion steaks on the bar-be-cue, more later,
JJ
PS......Hey Joe why so quiet?
Just ignore those dead beats from the Rotting Rats forum below as they are pretty hard pressed to spew out more than a five word response to anything we have to say here.
Gotta pick up my new 2017 Gen2 Ford Raptor S-Crew manana.
I'll not get in to the trawlers here as I've been over it plenty in previous posts.
Depending on what type high profile collateral kill being discussed, Vaquitas, Totoabas, or Sea Turtles the comercial pangas boats are the worst offenders. They typically use two types of monofilament based nets, tangle nets for shrimp and gill nets for fish.
The tangle type is basically a curtain of loosely matted mono with a few knots here and there to keep it sheet like when draped along a line suspended with soda pop bottle floats. The rig may be anchored a one end to keep it from drifting with the extreme local tides, or have a radio beacon on the rig using a stick or length of pvc pipe. This type of rig is what brings in most of the super-sized Gulf Blue Shrimp and they are usually set in relatively shallow water and don't reach the bottom. The shrimp come up from the bottom at night and feed on plankton. Do a night dive on any sandy bottom out there to observe this. I've had pretty good luck catching them at night off of Sandy Beach with a powerful dive light and a live bait net.
The swimming feeding shrimp contact the loose monofilament and their spiny heads, tails and legs get entangled and that's were they stay until the pangueros return the next day and pull em up. Back in the 70's I would get good hauls from the pangueros after getting them to come to shore as they were returning to their camps to unload. Even in those days they never had any sort of exceptional hauls, maybe forty or fifty big shrimp. Few if any of those huge shrimp are ever available in RP as they are worth much more to when sold to the overseas customers. I don't believe the tangle nets are responsible for very much by-catch as they are checked daily and are relatively visible to passing fish. They do catch diving birds, especially Loons and Grebes seeking smaller fish and shrimp.
Gill nets are a whole other issue. The gill net as the name suggests catches fish after their heads pass through a pre-determined opening of monofilament then if they try to back out they are stopped and held in place by their gills. Now of course this won't catch every fish that comes in contact since a lot of fish have heads bigger than their bodies or are small enough to just swim through the opening. Gill nets target certain types of fish and in the northern Sea of Cortez those fish are Corvinas and their big cousin the Totoaba. Last summer I saw the pangueros at El Jaguey coming in with hundreds of pounds of Corvinas on every boat. Every fish was almost the exact same size as they were limited by the size of the holes in the gill nets.
They had a few Sierras, Mexican Barracudas and Cabrillas but 99% of the catch was Corvinas. Another thing to consider is that the fish that they are targeting are all migrating schooling types. Just imagine what a Sea Lion does when it comes across a half mile of gill net loaded with fresh fish. Just go out to Isla San Jorge to see the results, there are always a few Sea Lions there, especially younger ones with a bloody necklace of monofilament cutting through their skins facing certain death.
Well, I gotta throw some fresh Sea Lion steaks on the bar-be-cue, more later,
JJ
PS......Hey Joe why so quiet?
Just ignore those dead beats from the Rotting Rats forum below as they are pretty hard pressed to spew out more than a five word response to anything we have to say here.
Gotta pick up my new 2017 Gen2 Ford Raptor S-Crew manana.
jerry
Guest
http://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/seized-sea-horses-believed-going-asia/. This makes me wish bad things on Asia
Jungle Jim
Guest
They probably grind em into powder, add some lard and slather up butthurt bungholes with the stuff.
We did a walkabout of Rodeo Drive last month and saw thousands of dried Sea Horses in almost every stall. They were priced pretty cheap like a buck for the big ones up to maybe four inches long. I asked them where they came from and was told right here in RP same as the big dried Pacific Ocher Sea Stars which is absolute baloney. Those Sea Stars are from Pacific coast wave beaten rocks and as for Sea Horses in RP in all of my years beach combing there I've only found four or five tiny one inchers and one big five incher dead and dried up on the beach at Bahia San Jorge this past summer.
I don't believe the right habitat exists for them in the Upper Gulf. I spent five years in Panama on the Pacific coast at Fort Kobbe where we would find a lot of them alive at low tide almost always associated with Sargasso. Maybe someone else in RP has seen them.
If they are worth $6,000.00 a kilo in TJ as per your link above, I'm gonna buy out all of the stock at Rodeo Drive this weekend!
JJ
We did a walkabout of Rodeo Drive last month and saw thousands of dried Sea Horses in almost every stall. They were priced pretty cheap like a buck for the big ones up to maybe four inches long. I asked them where they came from and was told right here in RP same as the big dried Pacific Ocher Sea Stars which is absolute baloney. Those Sea Stars are from Pacific coast wave beaten rocks and as for Sea Horses in RP in all of my years beach combing there I've only found four or five tiny one inchers and one big five incher dead and dried up on the beach at Bahia San Jorge this past summer.
I don't believe the right habitat exists for them in the Upper Gulf. I spent five years in Panama on the Pacific coast at Fort Kobbe where we would find a lot of them alive at low tide almost always associated with Sargasso. Maybe someone else in RP has seen them.
If they are worth $6,000.00 a kilo in TJ as per your link above, I'm gonna buy out all of the stock at Rodeo Drive this weekend!
JJ
It's sad, always has been. But, as long as there is a peso to be made, the Sea of Cortez will continue being raped. Have seen many of the same things you have, JJ, over the years. Some better, and probably a few worse. It's horrible to watch at times, seeing live baby sharks cut from the womb and being left to struggle in the surf line is one of the more "unmemorable" moments in my mind. That was pangas at a fish camp near Lobos. Like watching the beach run red in blood wasn't bad enough.
I don't have an answer. Wish I did.
I don't have an answer. Wish I did.
Last edited:
US Navy dolphins to the rescue of the Vaquita.
http://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/us-navy-dolphins-aid-vaquita-conservation/
http://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/us-navy-dolphins-aid-vaquita-conservation/
Landshark
Guest
I like the dolphins to the rescue idea but it's more of an act of desperation than anything. A more effective solution would be steeper penalties and total enforcement of existing fishing restrictions. The Mexican Navy is very capable of enforcement. Those in violation should be taken into custody, thrown in prison, and their ships blown all to hell. Time to take the gloves off....
jerry
Guest
Was wondering cwhy no one farms Totoaba? http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/environment/sd-me-totoaba-smuggling-20170517-story.html
jerry
Guest
https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/wolrdoceanday?source=feed_text this is great...hopeful
jerry
Guest
http://www.terrapeninsular.org/eng/ and this... Kenny and me are friends with Alan's brother.He puts his money to good use.No stinking giant trophy house just a plan to save the people in the area and the environment This .needs to be copied on the Sonoran coast.....
jerry
Guest
Jungle Jim
Guest
Passed thru El Golfo yesterday at about three in the afternoon. Saw about forty pangas coming in loaded with the incoming high tide. They were delivering their catch to the new Productos Marinas operation just north of town. There they were loading what looked like literally tons of Croakers with a bucket loader directly into open fifty foot trailers topped off with a little shave ice then being pulled with semi tractors south on the Coastal Highway. We passed three of them between Penasco and El Golfo with gallons of stinking greasy grey liquid pouring out onto the highway in a hazy spray behind them. We had to stop aftr each one to clean the greasy liquid shit from my windshield. There was no attempt being made to cool and preserve the catch for human consumption, most likely heading on down to the Caborca area to become fish meal for chicken feed.
Saturday at the panga camp at Bahia San Jorge there were only three beached pangas and a security guard, I asked him where the fleet was and he said every boat was at El Golfo for the Corbina run.
So much for los ricos Leonardo Dip Shit Da Vinci and Carlos Slim Pickins and their last ditch effort to stop the gill netting in the northern gulf. No evidence of the Sea Shepard boats anywhere along the coast. We did find two Vaquitas as stripped but still articulated skeletons with their skulls stove in and tied together as a pair at their tails with yellow poly rope on the beach south of the panga camp.
The last of the last will be the last in a very short time people!
JJ
Saturday at the panga camp at Bahia San Jorge there were only three beached pangas and a security guard, I asked him where the fleet was and he said every boat was at El Golfo for the Corbina run.
So much for los ricos Leonardo Dip Shit Da Vinci and Carlos Slim Pickins and their last ditch effort to stop the gill netting in the northern gulf. No evidence of the Sea Shepard boats anywhere along the coast. We did find two Vaquitas as stripped but still articulated skeletons with their skulls stove in and tied together as a pair at their tails with yellow poly rope on the beach south of the panga camp.
The last of the last will be the last in a very short time people!
JJ
