Sea Lions in Trouble

The Sad Plight of the
Magnificent San Carlos Sea Lions

Our wonderful Sea Lions at San Pedro Nolasco Island are in trouble, as are the magnificent whales that pass through this area. In the past few years, there have been many deaths from "Gill Nets". There are currently a few of these magnificent creatures that have managed to break free from the nets, only to be strangled by the cords and monofilament lines remaining around their necks or suffocated from the nets wrapped around their tails.

Amigos del Mar de Cortez, Desert Divers (Tucson) and many others, have been working to end the practice of fishing with indescriminate nets (and long lines) in the Sea of Cortez, especially around San Pedro Nolasco Island. There are estimates that there is currently enough netting just floating around in the Sea of Cortez to cover the Baja Peninsula 5 times! Presentations to Presidente Vicente Fox in early September, 2003, carried many well known local names and national celebrities such as Paul Humann.

The pictures, below, were courtesy of John Brakey, Craig Klein and Drew Vactor. The story is Cheryl Klawon's personal account of a trip in mid-August, 2003. If you want to learn more and/or help, click HERE.

Click on Photos for enlargement. Use your BACK button to return to this page. For Cheryl's story, click HERE.

One of the wonderful San Pedro Nolasco sea lions at Lighthouse bay. It has part of a net around its neck. It is too dangerous to approach without a tranquilizer gun, which is being held up by the bureaucracy in Mexico City. It will die, soon.

The first sea lion above may be the one from the top row at Lighthouse. The one on the right seems to have knawed off its own fin trying to get free from the net around its body. These were at South Point and Cascadita.

This gill net was cut loose from this huge whale by a skin diver. We were excited that the this particular whale survived. Another whale was recently tangled in a similar net and also survived, but its calf drowned before the net was cut free. For the complete story about this whale, click HERE

This space was provided courtesy of Kandie and Drew's Kandive SCUBA training organization.