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According to a statement released by Sea Shepherd , on February 8, a group of activists was monitoring the Upper Gulf of California when they were attacked by a group of four fishing skiffs in the Vaquita Refuge .
At 10:05 am, the skiffs approached the Sea Shepherd vessel and started to chase it, swerving in front of and around the ship. The captain of the vessel carried out anti-piracy procedures , including the use of water cannons and other anti-boarding techniques. Mexican officials from the environment protection office ( PROFEPA ), the federal police , and the Mexican navy were on board the Sea Shepherd vessel at the time of the incident.
The attack lasted several minutes and several gunshots were heard. Surveillance cameras onboard the vessel captured evidence of the attack . At least two shots , fired from the skiffs involved in the pursuit, landed in the water near the Sea Shepherd ship , which was not hit during the incident and no injuries occurred.
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According to Sea Shepherd , “the confrontation took place in a section of the Vaquita Refuge known as the “ critical zone ,” a priority area for conservationists and the Mexican government , and the region in which several vaquitas were recently sighted.” In this same location, the activist found a dead vaquita in March 2019, which was trapped in a gillnet .
Jacqueline Le Duc
, Captain of Sea Shepherd vessel the M/V Sharpie, said that “this just shows how aggressive the poachers are here. It proves to us that they are armed and that we need to take every panga that we come across seriously because we have no idea what they are capable of.”
The Vaquita Refuge is a protected area and UNESCO recognized area in which gillnet fishing is banned, as they are the main threat for the vaquita , an endemic Mexican species endangered by the totoaba trade. Poachers set the nets in an effort to catch totoaba , a protected species whose swim bladders sell for thousands on the Chinese black market .
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This is not the first time poachers attack the activist. In 2019, two violent attacks took place.
Sea Shepherd
works in collaboration with Mexican authorities and removes the illegal nets that threaten the endangered vaquita . So far, Sea Shepherd has retrieved over 1,000 pieces of illegal fishing gear from the Upper Gulf of California , saving the lives of over 3,900 animals.
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