• GUNSHOTS: Armed men aboard small boats in the upper Sea of Cortez, fired gunshots Saturday at one of two conservationist vessels in charge of efforts to protect the endangered vaquita porpoise, without harming any of the Mexican officials and conservationists on board.
• INVESTIGATION: Manned by the international conservation organization Sea Shepherd, one of two vessels involved in the efforts to protect the vaquita porpoise near the coastal town of San Felipe in the Baja California – the M/V Sharpie- managed to survive the latest attack from illegal poachers.
• SERIOUS: “This just shows how aggressive the poachers are here. It proves to us that they are armed and that we need to take every boat that we come across seriously. Because we have no idea what they are capable of”, said Jacqueline Le Duc, captain of M/V Sharpie.
• TOTOABA: With less than 19 vaquita porpoises believed to survive in the protected area near San Felipe, illegal poachers deploy illegal fishing nets to capture totoaba -a fish whose swim bladder is much sought after in China- and as a byproduct vaquita porpoises are caught.
