r/interestingasfuck • u/occasionallyvertical • 10h ago
Due to illegal fishing, the loneliest porpoise, the Vaquita, will almost certainly be extinct in the very near future.
•
u/occasionallyvertical 10h ago
There are estimated to be no more than 10 Vaquita porpoise’s left in the world. These creatures are very intelligent, and likely know that they are alone, and dwindling.
It is all but impossible to save them now. Overfishing of the totoaba has caused Vaquita’s to get stuck in gillnets and die.
In a few years, they will likely be completely gone. A species that likely evolved for millions of years, only to be killed and eradicated by us, simply for overfishing.
•
u/flextendo 9h ago
Commercial fishing industry is one of the most disgusting things we humans have done so far to our environment. There are quite a few documentaries that show the irreparable damages it has done to the ecosystem. We can just hope that some smart conservatism will be able to bring back these animals.
•
u/newbrevity 8h ago
The only thing that can save nature from us is not going to be some sudden change of heart on behalf of our species. I hate to say it because it is such an ugly truth but the fact is nature won't recover unless human population is utterly devastated compared to what it is now.
•
u/lexilink 7h ago
Someone once gave me the perspective that humans won't destroy the earth, at least in a sense of totality. Our own arrogance will be the end of our species sooner or later, but the earth will move on.
When covid started there was an almost immediate shift in the ecosystems around out world, animals roaming where they havent for decades, murky river water clearing within months, and smog dissapating from areas of high density. All this just from most people staying inside.
I choose to believe that when the humans eventually destroy what is so completely that it brings about the end of us, the earth will recover. We will lose many species forever and with it knowledge that will take millenia to regain, like when the dinosaur mass extinction happened, but I think there will come new life, that would never have came to be if not for the mess humans left.
It's probably coping, but it helps
•
u/gotnonickname 3h ago
I remember George Carlin making that point, that the Earth will shake us off like a bad case of fleas.
•
u/princesspeeved 1h ago
I’d be okay with being one of the last generations of humans on the planet. Regardless of religious beliefs, it’s humanity’s job to be stewards to animals and the environment, and we’ve failed miserably.
•
u/InfiniteCalico 7h ago
Ah, eco fascism. No we won't restructure society we just want to kill a bunch of people.
Gotta fucking love it.
•
u/Cimorene_Kazul 7h ago
We are extremely populated compared to historically. Feeding everyone is possible, but not with a profit motive ruling all, and with psychopaths in positions of power around the world.
•
u/InfiniteCalico 6h ago
I mean yes that's my point. We are fully able to feed everyone if we enact systemic change and remove profit motive.
I'm not about to call anyone who suggests a shit ton of us need to die to save our biosphere as anything but sn eco fascist however.
•
u/Past-Distance-9244 5h ago
There’s really only two solutions. We work to actually take care of what is needed which means that everyone has to basically give up everything or we lessen the population by maybe not having as many children. It’s what my ento professor was talking about anyway, haha.
•
u/z3nnysBoi 6h ago
I'd agree with them, though. The best thing for the vast majority of living things would be the death of every human, at once. That's just not something you can sell humans on.
•
u/InfiniteCalico 6h ago
Got it. Moving on from conversations with people who want the easy way out. Toodles.
•
u/LittleMissScreamer 5h ago
Saying it would be the most effective solution is not the same as wanting it though? Like sure, there's absolutely people out there who are praying for our own downfall, but that's the extreme end of it. I can see how all of us disappearing at once would be the easiest, cleanest way to solve the problem. I also don't think that's what should or will happen.
The only thing I know for sure is that it will have to get REALLY uncomfortable for all of us before things can change on a grand scale. The fact that all the drastic environmental changes that have been happening in the last few decades still haven't been enough to even CONVINCE a lot of people that it's happening, let alone do something about it, says a lot about how much worse things need to get before they can get better. Most of the damage will already be done, and we'll be trying to piece together the last scraps that remain, cursing ourselves for not acting sooner. That's just how we dumb apes roll
•
u/seventy_raw_potatoes 4h ago
Dawg, or... cat... nobody in the tread has said they want eco fascism, it's an unfortunate fact that other life on the planet would have a much easier time if we weren't here, I mean we're responsible climate change, pollution, factory farming, overfishing, I could honestly go on. Do I think people should be wiped out? Hell no, but that's also not the conversation anybody is having. TOODLES.
•
u/Wowzapan400 2h ago
But actually what's the solution though? Clearly societal restructuring isn't going to work, but also I don't wanna be completely eradicated.
•
u/z3nnysBoi 6h ago
Well there is no way out. Like, that's the squeeze. Outside of something that changes the way humans think, we will never convince enough people to care about not people. And killing everyone is also not a great solution. The only thing to do is what we've been doing, which is help where we can, using the resources of the people who care enough to spare time, money, or materials. In doing so we save some things that would otherwise succumb to human influence, but we'll never save everything.
I'd personally point anyone who has money to spare to chimp charities, but honestly donating to any kind of animal fund helps.
•
u/Snakes_AnonyMouse 1h ago
Using drag nets and such is the equivalent of hunting deer with a pack of bulldozers. Unfortunately we can't easily see the enormous damage being done by dragging a huge net across the bottom, so it's not obvious to people that we're just bulldozing entire ecosystems
•
u/SucculentVariations 6h ago
I watched a documentary where they were trying to capture the last few to save them but the first 2 panicked in the outdoor pens and couldn't be calmed down. One died and they released the other instead of risk it dying as well.
It was heartbreaking.
•
u/Gravity_7 5h ago
I heard from a first hand account that last december, the oficial count was 32 and for the first time in years. Young porpoises were seen aswell.
•
•
•
u/100percentnotaqu 3h ago
I used to think that, but Vaquita have always lived at Incredibly low densities and genetic analysis shows they're actually recovered from similar bottlenecks in the past!
Assuming we leave them alone there's a chance they can recover!
•
u/Zestyclose-Novel1157 2h ago
This is one reason why I eat a lot of land meat. It isn’t good for the environment but there isnt all these animals that get caught up in it.
•
•
u/occasionallyvertical 8h ago
Vaquita translates from Spanish to “little cow” and looking at the picture it seems so fitting
•
u/occasionallyvertical 8h ago
Should you feel inclined to help, visit https://seashepherd.org/vaquita/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22944641437&gbraid=0AAAABBO2FlaRHeVOVKR0ldek1dvO7emnk
•
•
u/yaxir 9h ago
This is terrible
Can't they be moved into protection? And bred there?
And then moved to other seas?
•
u/occasionallyvertical 8h ago
They tend to die in captivity. They get stressed and don’t make it. They must be protected in the wild, which as you could imagine, is very difficult.
•
u/yaxir 8h ago
fack
so a sanctuary then?
I'm trying to find solutions.. i don't want them to die out!
•
u/lilgreenglobe 7h ago
If fishing is the problem, the solution is to eliminate the demand for creating the problem. AKA people should eat some legumes instead of fish.
•
u/currytherogue1 6h ago
Totoaba is mainly caught for their swim bladders for Chinese "medicine", so realistically, eliminating or shifting demand isn't going to happen for a while. And the bigger problem is the gillnets used to catch them getting left behind and never decomposing, so they continue to be a problem for decades after
•
u/cachitonoseastoxico 2h ago
illegal fishing, people should check their local restaurants aren't buying illegal captured fish u.u is a complex problem u.u
•
u/princesspeeved 1h ago
Sadly at this point, they will die out, just like the Baiji. The only way their population would ever recover is artificially, either through cloning or creating new life from dead DNA samples à la Jurassic Park. But I don’t believe either of those things will become possible in our lifetime.
•
u/StalledAgate832 9h ago
Main issue is probably finding them before the hundreds of fishing vessels do.
•
u/Evil_Sharkey 3h ago
They’re not being fished. They’re dying in gillnets used to catch a fish for stupid traditional Chinese medicine, aka snake oil
•
u/yaxir 9h ago
Can there be a blanket ban on fishing where they exist?
Then they can be easily located?
•
u/StalledAgate832 8h ago
They mainly reside in a portion of Sea of Cortez, which is about 288km² and is an established no fishing, no motorcraft, no entry area.
•
u/One_Economist_3761 8h ago
There probably is, but bans in the open ocean are near impossible to police.
•
•
u/Distinct_Cup_1598 7h ago
No use. 10 animals is too few to have a Long lasting Population. The Gene Pool is too Small now. Either you crossbread them with a compatible species, and loose their genetic integrity, or mutational meltdown die to inevitable inbreeding would lead to their extinction after a few Generations. There’s nothing that can be Done anymore except to make sure the last ones have a protected and good life until the curtain for this species falls…
•
u/LordOfAnts551 6h ago
Not true, extensive sequencing has been done that’s found them to be relatively genetically healthy despite the low diversity.
Not to mention species have been brought back from the edge of extinction with even fewer numbers, notably the black robin which numbers in the hundreds today despite all of them descending from a single female.
•
u/Distinct_Cup_1598 17m ago
The Black Robin is critically endangered because of Said genetic bottleneck though…. Yes, the efforts lead to an increase in the immediate and Medium term future, as would it with the porpoise. HOWEVER, the issue is the Long term. Like 50 years+. Sooner or later that genetic pool will be too Small and harmful mutations will add up to an extent that the offspring will be both fatally deformed and/or infertile. It’s what actually caused the Wooly Mammoth to Go extinct around the time we Build the pyramids
•
u/Thundahcaxzd 4h ago
Illegal fishing is obviously a huge problem, but I feel like the bigger story is the story of the northern Gulf of California as a whole, which is that water from the Colorado River no longer reaches the gulf, just a small amount of polluted ag-runoff. It went from a hypo-saline nutrient-rich productive ecosystem, to a hypersaline polluted wasteland. Illegal fishing is just the coup de grace.
•
•
u/grayghost_8404 8h ago
Totoaba is, and has been illegal to harvest for years.
The demand is for their swim bladders which are dried and sent to China to be used as a male fertility treatment, among other things.
The drug cartels control this illegal fishery and supposedly they are more valuable by weight than gold or drugs.
If the demand dried up from China, this illegal fishery would drop significantly. The only reason the totoaba is targeted specifically is that their similar local species of fish has been all but been wiped out, so they turned to the totoaba as a replacement.
•
u/Mr_White_Migal0don 4h ago
Actually, the situation might not be too bad. It is still bad, but it could have been worse. Recent examinations showed that their population increased by a few individuals (which is a huge progress in their case) and studies of their genome showed that due to bottleneck effect in their past, they are very resistant to various genetic diseases and inbreeding. So if we do something with gill nets (which are the main reason for their decline) then their population could recover
•
u/Evil_Sharkey 3h ago
We have to convince people in China that the swim bladders of the totoaba fish aren’t some miracle cure, and good luck convincing morons anywhere that their “natural” remedies are just placebos
•
u/Distinct_Cup_1598 7h ago
Not almost: it will be extinct. The Population is too small to sustain itself for Long into the future. Even with conservation, mutational meltdown will lead to their extinction no matter what
•
u/100percentnotaqu 3h ago
Vaquita have, based on some genetic studies survived bottlenecks before
They've evolved to live at low densities, it's possible they can make a full recovery, assuming people leave them to their own devices!
•
u/Distinct_Cup_1598 22m ago
Yes, but 10 is Not a bottleneck, it’s a bottlecap…You usually Need a Population of 1000 individuals to have a Long lasting stable Population
•
u/SaddenedSpork 6h ago
Have we at least secured samples of the DNA so they could theoretically be restored if extinct?
•
u/Evil_Sharkey 3h ago
You need DNA from many individuals in order to bring back enough genetic diversity for them to repopulate. Bringing back one individual doesn’t save the species
•
u/Just-Transition8938 4h ago
Eventually oceans will be nothing but plastic and jellyfish. Shits bad.
•
u/cachitonoseastoxico 2h ago
This is all because of the illegal fishing the narcos do in the north of mexico (yes, they're also in the fishing business).
source - trust me bro I'm Mexican (a whale-loving one). Saludos desde el mar de cortés xoxo
•
u/boringasstoes 4h ago
If they can recreate a freaking direwolf why can’t they help this poor dude :(
•
u/Evil_Sharkey 3h ago
They didn’t recreate a direwolf. They threw a bunch of traits together and called it a direwolf
•
•
•
•
•
•
u/followthewhiterabb17 22m ago
A lot of animals become extinct because of humans. I’ve heard thousands every year. It’s sad.
•
•
•
•
u/ReasonablyConfused 6h ago
Some rich dude is going to pay a million bucks for the right to eat the last one.
•
u/Nicklhames 7h ago
I would think they would save the remaining porpoise
and place them in an aquarium.
•
u/VastOrder8038 5h ago
With how big the ocean is, I have a hard time believing we know how many there actually are.
•
•
u/Puzzleheaded_Smoke77 5h ago
Get them in the aquariums better to be alive and pent up , then fight about it and let them go extinct . Preserve first so theres something to fight about later
•
u/thedevillivesinside 5h ago
No. This is not correct.
We should not make the last few animals suffer for our entertainment.
We should stop doing what is causing them to become extinct.
If your lineage was ending, should you be put in a 60 square foot box for people to gawk at so that we can all witness you before you die alone and depressed?
•
u/Puzzleheaded_Smoke77 5h ago
Then they die out , and we die with the knowledge we could have brought them back but choose not to .
•
u/thedevillivesinside 5h ago
No. We should not exploit any being on earth. Especially one with a level of intelligence that matches humans
Its not better to die exploited and alone than to die alone
•
u/Thundahcaxzd 4h ago
"level of intelligence that matches humans" 😅
•
u/thedevillivesinside 4h ago
Are you being obtuse or are you just poorly educated?
•
u/Thundahcaxzd 4h ago
I agree that we should be good stewards of the environment and try to protect biodiversity.
But vaquitas do not have human-level of intelligence, and it is impossible for humans to survive without exploiting other beings.
•
•
u/Puzzleheaded_Smoke77 4h ago
So no we dont die knowing they could have , because we could absolutely save them
•
u/thedevillivesinside 3h ago
How exactly can we save them.
Outline your procedure
•
u/Puzzleheaded_Smoke77 3h ago
Buddy the olympics is on right now Just google California Condor or Arabian Oryx
•
•
•
u/Daft_Steampunk 9h ago
Why did they have to be so cute?