The DEATH of a SPECIES

[makobob]

New post on Mako-ville


Vaquita almost EXTINCT
by Makobob
Another poorly waged battle fought and the war was LOST to our greed. Another SPECIES dead. For what? WHY?

NOW that there appears to be less than 30 Vaquita still alive in the WORLD. Little can be done to save them. Small, shy, but beautiful, the Desert porpoise were awesome to sea in the wild. Their flattened face and racoon like eyes are easy to spot. Mom's with their pups not much larger than a football were not an uncommon site in the past. They were often seen around the San Felipe area.

I saw my first one as a child fishing with my dad and grandpa. We were on a panga outside San Felipe in 1958. The panga driver pointed them out to me. They were quickly gone, very shy. In 1995 I found one on the beach at Las Encantadas, dead after a storm. I buried it in the dunes behind mako-ville.

Our brothers and sisters of the sea gave their lives for a Asian aphrodisiac. Human greed and pleasure killed them. I am so disappointed in our species. Will we never learn?

In weeks there will be an attempt to capture the few remaining individuals. We the arrogant beings we are, will try to breed them in captivity. If we caught EVERY Vaquita,alive and unstressed there is not enough genetic material to keep their Species alive. Cross breeding with other small harbour porpoise whole just give us another hybrid. The Vaquita as a SPECIES would be gone.

And what pressures would be put on the new Vaquita half-breed? How long would the new group last before they too were exploited? WE are killing our planet with our GREED. The oceans are dying. Toxic waste is every where, over fishing, trash, our SEAS are dying. WHEN they DIE so do we!

Maybe the world would be better off without us? Excuse me for loosing direction. The Vaquita are gone and I for one am saddened to the bottom of my soul. WE did this. WE have not done our part to save them. Good bye my brothers and sisters in the Sea of Cortez. I for ONE will miss you. And many others too. Bye, Bye. Yes I am crying, and I know not for whom.

This rocks me to the very bottom of my soul, some of you will feel the same. What do we as a SPECIES do to keep it from happening again? PLEASE tell me.