Vaquita: Habitat

Summary: The vaquita lives in the most biodiverse body of water on the planet! Join Kiersten as she take you on a journey through the Sea of Cortez.

 

For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

 

Show Notes: 

https://www.nmmf.org/marine-mammal/vaquita-porpoise/

https://www.britannica.com/place/Gulf-of-California

https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1182

“Birth of an Ocean” by Annie Reisewitz: https://scripps.ucsd.edu/news/birth-ocean

https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/totoaba

https://porpoise.org/save-the-vaquita/

https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/dolphin_porpoise.html

Vaquita Conservation Organizations

Porpoise.org

 

Transcript

 

(Piano music plays)

Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife.

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Kiersten - Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I’m Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we’ll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating. 

 

This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won’t regret it.

 

This episode continues the vaquita and the second thing I like about the vaquita is their habitat!

 

Now, the vaquita is only found in one place on Earth and that is the Sea of Cortez also known as the Gulf of California. This gulf is surrounded by land with the northwestern Mexican states of Sonora, Sinaloa, and Nayarit on the eastern side of the water and the mountainous peninsula of Baja California on the west side. The bottom of the gulf opens into the Pacific Ocean. There are 244 islands in the Gulf of California. The unique geographical characteristics of this area make it a perfect region for isolated habitats that are ideal for hosting endemic species. Endemic species by definition are species that are evolutionarily native to a specific area. There is a total of 160,000 square kilometers in the Gulf of California.  

 

The vaquita only lives in 2235 square kilometers of this area. That’s smaller than the state of Rhode Island. Vaquitas favor the shallow lagoons about 25 kilometers or 16 miles off shore in the northern portion of the gulf. They prefer water only 10 to 28 meters or 33 to 92 feet deep where the water is warm. I have to admit I like warmer water too!

 

The vaquita is the only porpoise that chooses to live in warm water. This is probably why their adult size is so small and why their dorsal fin is large in comparison to their body. The large dorsal fin most likely helps dissipate heat. Please listen to the first episode of my vaquita series, if you have not yet done so, to find out more about the physical characteristics of the vaquita.

 

We don’t know why they choose warmer waters when all other porpoises prefer cooler water,    but what we do know is what the waters of the Sea of Cortez are like and from this we can make an educated guess about why this particular area appeals to this small porpoise.

 

The Sea of Cortez is an area teeming with aquatic life. After thousands of years of run-off from the Colorado River, life-supporting nutrients have built up on the bottom of this body of water. Strong currents stir up these nutrients and many species of animals take advantage of that.

 

In this natural inlet, there are 23 priority sites for marine biodiversity, 42 priority sites for terrestrial biodiversity, and 62 priority sites for bird conservation. Dubbed as the “Aquarium of the World” by Jaques Cousteau, the Gulf of California is recognized as an area of global marine conservation significance. Five of the seven existing species of sea turtle are found in the Sea of Cortez. It is home to 891 different fish species, 90 of them are endemic. It also contains 40% of the world’s total number of species of marine mammal. 40 sea lion colonies are spread throughout the area with an estimated population of over 30,000 individuals. And 1/3 of the world’s marine cetacean species can be found here at some time throughout their lives. There is even a healthy coral reef community off the coast of the seaside town of Cabo Pulmo. It is considered the only coral reef at such a high latitude in the Pacific Ocean. 

 

Another remarkable fact about the Sea of Cortez is that almost all major oceanographic processes occurring in Earth’s oceans are present in this body of water. Oceanographic processes are defined on the USGS website as recurrent natural changes that are physical, biological, or chemical, actively affecting the the seas and oceans. In the Sea of Cortez sediment runoff from the land occurs depositing minerals into the water, this area is also still actively expanding essentially creating a new ocean, turbulent tides and currents mix up the sediments from both expansion and runoff.  Of course not all sediment from runoff is good but this area has been protected as an important natural refuge since 1995. 

 

The sea floor below the gulf is actually made up of 2 types of crust, oceanic and continental. This combination creates a unique environment where marine mammals can thrive. The bay is an underwater marvel with 4,000 foot deep submarine canyons, enormous underwater mountains, and hydrothermal vents crawling with life. The hydrothermal vents were discovered about 50 years ago, and in 2008 biologists from the Scripps Institute of Oceanography documented marine animals previously never seen alive. All of this activity makes the Sea of Cortez the most biologically rich body of water on the planet. It’s no wonder that this is where the vaquita calls home.

 

Being a porpoise, the vaqutia are toothed mammals. Their teeth are spade-shaped   and flat, so they kinda look like the head of a shovel. They are perfect teeth for eating fish, squid, and even crab or lobster. We’ve actually found 17 different species of fish in the stomach of one vaquita. They are not terribly picky about who they eat and what a perfect place to live with so many species of fish found in the Gulf of California!

 

Now, as many of you know, when something has this much biodiversity it attracts more than just animas in nature, it also attracts humans. Many of the animals that live in and around the water make for good eating for humans. This means fishing occurs in the area. If it was just a few humans fishing for their daily dinner this wouldn’t be a problem. Even if it was the local town fishing to provide food for everyone that lived there, it wouldn’t be a problem. But humans rarely take only what they need for themselves, sadly, we are often motivated by how much profit can be made from a natural resource. This has put the vaquita in danger. I will focus another episode on the conservation status of the vaquita, but I’d like to touch on one of the fish in the area that our overfishing of has impacted the vaquita population, as well as, the fish itself.

 

The totoaba fish are found in the same exact area of the gulf as the vaquita. This fish can be 200 pounds and reach a length of 6.5 feet. It’s scientific name is Totoaba macdonaldi. It is considered a drum fish but it is the only fish classified in the Totoaba genus. What does that mean? There is no other fish like them on the planet.

 

The totoaba is endemic to the Gulf of California where it spawns each year in the Colorado River Delta. This fish is listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act because it has been overfished for entirely too long. Large fish, such as the totoaba, typically take many years to reach sexual maturity. When we fish for them, we often want the largest specimens and those are the ones that are sexually mature, which removes the individuals that will create the next generation from the environment.  

 

What is it that makes this fish so sought after? Their swim bladder. This is the organ in a fish that allows the fish to control its buoyancy. The totoaba’s swim bladder is used in traditional Chinese medicine. They dry it out and use it in a soup called fish maw. This is a pretty big swim bladder, when dried it is about the size of a laptop computer. Why do the Chinese want it? It is believed to boost fertility. 

 

How exactly is this impacting the vaquita. The adults of this species are not something the vaquita would eat because they are larger than the small porpoise. The problem comes with the fishing method. Most fisherman that commercially fish for totoaba want to catch as many as possible and; therefore, use gill nets. Gill nets are cast out and catch whatever they catch,  they are not a targeted fishing method. Vaquita get caught in the nest and cannot surface to get air and die. Because of overfishing of the totoaba, the vaquita are also incredibly endangered.

 

I hope you all enjoyed this trip to the Sea of Cortez because it is my second favorite thing about the vaquita. 

 

Please visit porpoise.org to find out even more about the vaquita and the totoaba and discover what you can do to help these unique animals.

 

Join me next week for another ten-minute episode focusing on the vaquita. 

 

(Piano Music plays) 

This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.