Cool, full report here & will send you contact info

iucn-csg.org/joint-visual...

2/2 95 drone flights, 23 hours total. Vaquitas occasionally exhibited mild avoidance behavior when the drone descended rapidly or hovered directly above them below approx 70 m; better to approach gradually, stay high & keep distance for any hope of prolonged observation in future

3/3 Still most of #Vaquita Refuge unmonitored, too many gillnetters in parts that are, & too many days of skiffs where vaquita porpoises were recently detected outside ZTA area. It's urgent to eliminate gillnetting to prevent extinction & enable recovery.
tinyurl.com/VSC79

2/3 Two different consecutive fishing seasons were compared & overall fishing activity declined annually in both seasons (-37% in shrimp & -19% in finfish). Also, for the first time found annual declines (-23 & -27%) rather than increases in gillnetting in the VRA #Vaquita Refuge

3/3 Gracias @nmas for this vivid & poignant journey back 30 years ago showing how we got here, to the brink of extinction for a unique little porpoise so rare now that many locals don't believe it ever existed, let alone miraculously still survives today🙏
youtu.be/mX2gWYEE1Qc...

2/3 A reporter was served illegal #totoaba swim bladder soup in Mexicali's Chinatown, & a fisherman, asked how long it had been since he last hauled up an entangled #vaquita in his gillnet, replied "three days."

for now, is reduce gillnet ban area from 10,000 km2 area on paper to an approximation of the Vaquita Refuge area in reality. Such a compromise between science & community, while still risky, is much less so than fishers w vaquita-safe gear permits gillnetting all around the ZTA.