The Billfish Foundation
conservation thorough research education and advocacy
PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Ellen Peel
(800) 438-8247, ext. 108 or
Dr. Russ Nelson (561) 449-9267
TBF Partnership Proves Productive With Year End Success in Mexico
Ft Lauderdale, Fl -- Mexico will prohibit all drift gillnets, prohibit the use of longlines on vessels greater than 27’ within 50 miles of the coast, refuse to license any factory vessels applying to fish in national waters, and eliminate dual permits previously used to allow shark longliners to catch and retain billfish, dorado and other gamefish bycatch within the 50 mile conservation zones. This news was the proclamation of Ramon Corrall, the new Commissioner of CONAPESCA, Mexico’s national fisheries agency, made in La Paz and Cabo San Lucas following last week’s series of private and public meetings with TBF’s fishery scientist, Dr. Russell Nelson, and Guillermo Alvarez of La Fundación para la Conservación de los Picudos (FCP), TBF’s Mexican conservation partner.
“Ramon Corrall and his newly appointed science advisor Dr. Martin Bottello demonstrated a commitment to conservation and an understanding of the economic value of sportfishing tourism that had been missing under his predecessor,” said Nelson. TBF is hopeful his promises signal a real change in Mexican fisheries management. Corrall was also very receptive to: including recreational fishing representatives on Mexico’s delegation to international fisheries management organizations, implementing the use of VMS on commercial vessels, and finalizing a new and much improved shark management plan.
"Our work together with TBF appears to have made a positive impression on the new fisheries administration and we are cautiously optimistic the declarations by Ramon Corral will mark the beginning of a new and positive relationship between the billfishing community and CONAPESCA,” said Guillermo Alvarez of FCP.
Eliminating drift gillnets and further restricting the use of longlines in Mexican waters should have a strong positive impact on the resources available off Mag Bay, Baja California, and the Sea of Cortez. The proposed regulations would eliminate the loophole used by longliners and drift gillnetters to fish within the 50 mile conservation zones under swordfish or shark permits. This loophole has led to recent increases in commercial fishing activity in and around Mag Bay.
Another TBF partner, the University of Miami’s Center for Sustainable Fisheries, sent its new Chairman Gary Thomas to observe firsthand how the coordinated efforts of TBF, FCP and other Mexican conservation organizations have opened the doors for improvement in fisheries management in that country. TBF is pleased with its partnership with the University and hopes the Center can further augment collaborative efforts.
TBF is the leading sportfishing conservation organization fighting to advance the conservation of billfish worldwide through research, education and advocacy. Our international partnerships bring about positive change for the fish and fishing.
Special News Posted for Baja Bush Pilots
This Just in: 9/1/03 from email
P.S. Guillermo Alvarez wrote this morning that a sperm whale entangled in a gillnet was seen in the
Sea of Cortez off Baja Sure. Five boats and a couple of planes have signed on
to the SeaWatch coordinated search. There's speculation that it might be Ms
Moby. Also a report came in today from the Pacific side that 26 dolphins were
found decomposed in a net off the Pacific coast of Baja. The beat goes on.
By Pete
Thomas
Times Staff Writer
August 8, 2003
Mark Ward won't soon forget the look of distress so apparent in the eyes of the
floundering whale — large, hopeful eyes that met his after he'd dived in and
attempted to cut away a large net in which the cow and her calf had become
perilously entangled.
Nor will the retired fishing and diving guide be able to shake from his memory
the thrashing he received from the 35-foot leviathan in a moment of panic — a
thrashing that caused him to likewise become entangled, and to be held under for
so long that he took his knife and tried to saw his leg off in a desperate
attempt to reach the surface.
These are lasting images and impressions.
But two weeks after the chaotic rescue attempt atop the choppy Sea of Cortez, 30
miles beyond San Carlos, Mexico, off the Sonora coast, Ward says it is the long,
eerie, almost otherworldly cries of the stricken sperm whale that really have a
grip on his mind.
"I haven't had any nightmares yet, but I have woke up to that song," the Tucson
resident said this week from his part-time home in San Carlos. "I could hear her
singing, like, her death song. She was crying for help.
"Never till two nights later, after a stiff drink, did I realize that she was
probably not crying for her help or my help. She was crying for her baby."
Ward, 51, had been listening to the VHF radio while doing yard work on the
afternoon of July 24 when a static-filled plea for help came across the
airwaves.
Dick Replogle, on a sport fishing trip with his sons, Bryan and Court, made the
call. They had found the whale and her calf "wrapped like a cigar three times"
in a monofilament net presumably abandoned by its owners when they saw what
their haul was. The calf, pressed tightly against her mother, had already
perished and its carcass had begun to deteriorate.
Replogle, 60, also from the Tucson area, had tied his vessel to the netting and
his sons had jumped in to try to cut away as much of it as possible.
They had freed the pectoral fins and tail, and had also managed to separate the
calf. But without masks or other diving equipment, that was as much as they
could do.
Ward and his girlfriend caught a ride aboard a fast boat and arrived just before
dusk, and he volunteered to jump in with a mask and snorkel — "I didn't use a
tank because the bubbles might have frightened her," he said — and see whether
he could remove the netting still attached to the animal's midsection and jaw.
What happened next was a scene evocative of Herman Melville's "Moby Dick," which
pitted Capt. Ahab against the great white whale that had once maimed him.
The net was a drift gill-net, a controversial type of fishing gear that
resembles nets used on volleyball or tennis courts, only much wider and with
much larger mesh. They have weights to keep the lower portions down and floats
to keep them upright.
They can measure up to three miles and, because of their indiscriminate and
destructive nature — they're commonly referred to as "curtains of death" — their
use has diminished in many parts of the world. Mexico is allowing them inside
its 50-mile sportfishing-only zone as part of what it calls a limited shark
fishery.
Five long strands of the net had worked their way "just like dental floss"
between the teeth and gums on the sperm whale's lower jaw, and around the jaw
itself, Ward said. Dangling beneath the jaw was at least one of the weights
attached to the net.
"Looking into that mouth was absolutely like being in a monster movie," Ward
recalled. "But I knew I had to tough it out."
Remarkably, the whale seemed to sense that an effort was being made on its
behalf. She allowed Ward to probe her mouth and with each long breath he
carefully cut at the strands of netting. He had removed three strands before
accidentally nicking the whale's tongue with his knife.
That brought about an entirely different type of behavior.
"She was trying to kill me," Ward said. Perhaps out of instinct, the whale
became full of fight. As Ward described it, she slapped her pectoral fins hard
against her body, creating a current that left Ward swirling beneath her jaw.
She then pushed the diver down with her head and spun her massive body.
As she spun, the netting twisted around Ward's ankle and lower calf. Desperately
in need of air, he began to saw at the netting. But when that wouldn't give he
realized that amputation might be his only salvation.
"It was either the net or the leg," he said. "I was absolutely sawing my whole
leg off about 15 inches above the ankle."
Fortunately, not long after he'd begun to cut, the netting unraveled "like a
twisted-up rubber band" and the diver, along with the whale, reappeared at the
surface.
"As I told my old lady, my ankle went around like the chick's neck on 'The
Exorcist,' " Ward said.
His girlfriend cared for his wound until the boat made landfall, upon which he
received 12 stitches for a cut that extended to the bone.
The fate and whereabouts of the whale, meanwhile, remain unknown. John Brakey,
executive director of the conservation group Friends of the Sea of Cortez, last
weekend launched an air search effort that remains underway in an effort to find
an animal he refers to as Ms. Moby.
The search has yet to turn up any sign of the whale — a good sign, he says,
because freshly dead whales typically bloat and float for weeks.
If there is an upside to this incident, Brakey said, it is the publicity it
might generate as conservationists and sport fishing interests continue their
tireless fight to keep gill-nets and long lines — another type of indiscriminate
gear, with lines extending as far as six miles with thousands of baited hooks —
out of the Sea of Cortez, one of the world's richest marine areas.
Commercial fishermen have been trying for the last several years to get inside
Mexico's 50-mile
buffer zone — a zone intended to protect important fisheries in the Sea of
Cortez, which is less than 100 miles wide, and along coastal areas.
They've had little success until recently. They argue that such exclusion is
unfair and makes it difficult for them to make a living, and that there isn't
enough scientific evidence to back claims by environmentalists that various
fisheries won't be able to sustain the added pressure.
Mexican fisheries agencies, which have been holding meetings for the development
of a new shark-fishing regulation in hopes that it will enable them to manage
the fishery in a manner good for both fishermen and the economy, have been
reluctant to include a ban on gill-nets and long lines.
Meanwhile, they have issued 201 "experimental" permits to fish for sharks inside
the buffer zone. Commercial boats in the Sea of Cortez are mostly converted
shrimp-fishing vessels using gill-nets in the prolific midriff area where
several species of shark are known to mate and pup.
The trouble with this, scientists say, is that sharks are already overfished and
gill-nets and long lines don't know the difference between sharks and important
game fish such as marlin, sailfish, tuna and dorado (mahi-mahi).
Nor, as it has again become clear, do they discriminate against whales, other
mammals and turtles.
In an e-mail communication this week with Brakey, Juan Pablo Gallo Reynoso, a
prominent whale researcher living in Guaymas, said the sperm whale was "at least
the fifth whale found entangled in any sort of a net" in recent months, and
listed among the victims two gray whales, a blue whale and two sperm whales,
"both of which lost their babies."
Guillermo Alvarez, a government appointee representing the tourism sector, in
essence labeled Mexican President Vicente Fox a hypocrite this week for publicly
announcing, several months ago, that Mexico would become known as a whale
sanctuary.
"This is starting to look more like a whale cemetery than a sanctuary," said
Alvarez, who is also executive director of the Mexican Billfish Foundation, a
conservation group.
So far, news of the latest incident has yet to reach mainstream audiences in
Mexico and there has been no public response from Fox. But there is little doubt
that he is aware of what's going on.
Last summer, fisheries officials came close to publishing as law, almost without
notice, a regulation that would have opened almost all Mexican waters to
extensive use of gill-nets. Instead, the public got wind and the outcry was such
that the president ordered its suspension and indefinite withdrawal.
Now the shark regulation is back in the spotlight, taking shape in a manner
still under discussion, with controversy swirling anew as Ward hobbles around on
a bad leg, wondering whether his heroic effort did any good.
"I'm just glad to be alive," he said.
If you want other stories on this topic, search the Archives at latimes.com/archives.
Pete Thomas
August 15, 2003
Last week's outdoor page included a story about a 35-foot sperm
whale struggling in a fisherman's net, alongside her calf, which already had
perished and was decaying.
Reaction was vociferous and understandable. One caller left a voice-mail message
saying, "The lady I've been living with for 27 years cried her eyes out" over
the plight of both whales, especially that of the mother, rendered helpless as
her baby was dying, and then having to drag the dead calf around the Sea of
Cortez for a week, perhaps longer.
Those concerned took their only solace from a rescuer — he became entangled in
the net and was nearly killed — who was at least able to cut some of the netting
away from the mother whale, then disappeared with the setting sun on July 24.
Not surprisingly, nobody called or wrote to defend the use of drift gill-nets,
which can be three miles long and which indiscriminately trap fish and mammals,
large and small.
Granted, those most likely to do so would be the Mexican commercial fishermen
permitted to use the gear in one of the most prolific marine areas in the world.
After all, they're mostly poor folks trying to earn a living and believe they
have as much right to the fishing grounds as anyone else.
Plus, they have the blessing of Mexican fisheries officials, who have issued
more than 200 temporary permits enabling use of the nets inside the country's
50-mile sportfishing-only zone, as they work to develop a new shark regulation
aimed at responsible management of that fishery.
These officials might also make a case for the nets. Their main argument so far
has been that there isn't conclusive scientific evidence showing that sharks
cannot sustain pressure placed upon them by the nets, or that the incidental
taking of other species would have an adverse effect on those fisheries.
But they're not speaking out now — not publicly anyway. Not with one of the
world's most beloved creatures showing up as the incidental catch of the day,
all too frequently.
The aforementioned sperm whale, nicknamed "Ms. Moby," has been the subject of
sporadic searches since it was last seen about 35 miles west of San Carlos,
Mexico, which is nearly 300 miles deep into the gulf on the mainland side,
roughly opposite Santa Rosalia on the Baja California coast.
On Saturday, another sperm whale was found entangled in a net 16 miles west of
San Carlos. (This area is just south of the nutrient-rich midriff section of the
Sea of Cortez and is popular among sperm whales at this time of year.) Although
it originally was thought to be Ms. Moby, it turned out to be a male sperm whale
estimated to be 9 years old. Its successful rescue, carried out by a team that
included a well-known scientist, was captured on video.
On Tuesday, there were unconfirmed reports of another whale spotted floating
dead in the surf well north of San Carlos.
There is a silver lining to the alarming, almost suspect rate at which whales
are turning up in nets, according to some.
"God sent us those three whales to show the plight of the Sea of Cortez and to
wake up the people," said Guillermo
Alvarez, a government appointee representing the tourism
sector, and president of the Mexican Billfish Foundation.
Alvarez is part of a growing coalition of conservation-minded groups and
individuals who plan to unveil footage of the successful whale rescue during a
news conference next week in Mexico City. Their aim is to raise public awareness
and pressure the government to permanently ban the use of drift gill-nets and
long-line gear inside of at least 50 miles.
The footage shows breath-hold diver
Vince Radice in the water using industrial-strength scissors
to cut a thick, tangled piece of net from the tail of the whale, while the whale
remains passive and immobile, as if aware of his rescuer's good intentions.
"The whale was absolutely exhausted," said Radice, owner of a diving and water
sports business in San Carlos.
He added that he had brought blunt-tipped scissors instead of a knife to avoid a
repeat of the rescue attempt on Ms. Moby. In that attempt,
Mark Ward accidentally nicked
the whale's tongue with his knife, causing the mammal to spin and Ward's leg to
get caught in the net. He was held under and nearly drowned.
Radice said, "After I cut through the net I dove back down and touched the right
side of his fluke [tail] and said, 'You're free and how do you feel?' The cool
thing is that the whale actually looked back with its left eye and looked at its
tail. He could see that he was free and then he just swam away."
Whether the footage will head off inroads already being made — in the form of
the temporary permits — by the commercial fishing sector remains to be seen.
One of the proposals under review reportedly is to reduce the buffer zone from
50 to 30 miles. This may seem like a small concession, but conservationists and
sportfishermen are adamantly against it because it would allow drift gill-net
and long-line fishermen inside the Sea of Cortez, which is 95 miles wide at its
widest point.
As for the shark fishery, concrete evidence of its ill health may be lacking,
but it is generally agreed upon by scientists — those not working for the
government, anyway — that the predators are severely overfished and that
shark-fishing permits are largely a ruse to allow the by-catch of species such
as tuna, dorado (mahi-mahi), wahoo, marlin, sailfish and swordfish.
Mexico's fisheries officials are in a tough spot over the issue, as they try to
balance everyone's interests. The conservationists can point to the plight of
the whales, but the commercial fishing industry is reeling from the
near-collapse of the shrimp fishery — Sea of Cortez shrimp fishermen hold most
of the temporary shark permits — mostly because of a decline in world prices.
It figures to get a good deal tougher over the next couple of weeks.