Feature story - 17 November, 2006
The Gulf of California in Mexico was named the “World’s Aquarium” by Jacques Cousteau because of its rich marine life. A year after we began living the life aquatic on the Defending our Oceans expedition, the Esperanza is sailing into Mexico to highlight the threats to this marine life and the plight of the world's most endangered porpoise - the vaquita.
Surgeon fish in shallow water off the coast of Mexico.
Seal chasing sardine dinner in the warm waters off Mexico.
Bottlenose Dolphin head out of the water.
The Gulf of California region has huge economic benefit for
thewhole of Mexico, bringing nearly five million tourists and
providinghalf the country's fish supply. But pressure from
destructive fishing,pollution and uncontrolled tourism development
are threatening life inthe Aquarium.
Marine reserves needed now
Our campaigner in Mexico, Alejandro, explains why such a rich
marine environment needs our help. "Thefuture of the region
depends upon the seas staying healthy. Mexico cantake the lead
internationally by protecting the Gulf of California, notonly
because it is one of the world's richest marine ecosystems
butbecause all threats which we have witnessed in the rest of the
worldconverge here," he said. "A networkof marine reserves in the
Gulf of California would benefit fishing,local communities and the
country."
Today we presented
areport to officials and leading marine scientists in La Paz,
outlininga plan to protect the region from the major threats. If
we've got anything to do with it, the Gulf ofCalifornia will become
part of a global network of marine reservescovering 40 percent of
the world's oceans.
Defending our Oceans - a year of living the Life Aquatic
On November 18ththe Defending Our Ocean expedition celebrates
one year campaigning forthe establishment of marine reserves. The
tour began in Cape Town,South Africa, from where the Esperanza left
to defend the SouthernOcean Whale Sanctuary from the whaling
fleets. Since then we've been to 25 different ports from West
Africa to the Philippines, India to Hawaii. We've seen pirates and
plastic, tuna and turtles, cod and concrete as well as two oil
spills, an earthquake, an active volcano, a hurricane, a bombing
and a toxic dumping.
Together with you, our Ocean Defenders, we've
shaken the corporate foundations of Japanese Fisheries Agency
whaling,
confronted the financiers of Lafayette Mine, put
bottom trawling on the agenda at the UN and sent thousands
of messages to the government of Iceland about their commercial
whaling, and much much more.
Here's a small snapshot of how far we've come:
Defending Our Oceans ... in numbers
- 9 - number of
days lost by Japan Fisheries Agency fleet thanks to us (according
to their report submitted to the International Whaling Commission).
They were 84 whales under quota.
- 11 - countries
that have gone from
"Destroyers" to "Defenders" on bottom trawling
- 68.5 million -
Radio Africa listeners heard us vow to arrest pirates on our West
Africa leg -
and we did!
- USD $400,000 -
unprecedented fine imposed on pirate ship Binar 4, putting it out
of business
- 425,000 -
number of cyberactions/ecards sent (more every minute)
- 700,000 -
viewers of Ocean
Defenders TV (in English)
- 1,179,243 -
number of visits to the Defending Our Oceans website in 2006
alone
- 26 - number of
port visits by the Esperanza
- 13 - number of
languages we are working in
We'd like to take this opportunity to thank our Ocean Defenders for all your support. Stay on board, there's plenty more to come.
Download Gulf of California report
Download our report on why the Gulf of California needs marine reserves
Read the Esperanza weblog
Updates straight from the ship in the World's Aquarium