The Upper Gulf of California is at the same time an area of great fishing importance for the coastal communities of Baja California and Sonora, and a habitat for the vaquita marina, a marine mammal endemic to the region and critically endangered.
To protect the vaquita marina, the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) created a refuge area where fishing with gill nets or gillnets, identified as the main threat to the species, is restricted. However, for the community that has historically used these fishing gears, the restrictions have been perceived as an imposition, which has generated tensions between fishermen and environmental and fishing authorities.
“They are not listening to the fisherman and we are being forgotten. We have been taking our requests to Claudia Sheinbaum, president of Mexico, for 8 months, and we asked her to come to the port of San Felipe to see the problem, but she has never come,” said Ana García, representative of Pescadores Unidos de San Felipe.
For years, one of the main demands of the fishing sector has been to regain access to areas where the use of nets is currently prohibited. In February 2026, the Intergovernmental Sustainability Group (GIS) of the Upper Gulf of California announced that the marine vaquita protection park would be modified with the objective of improving surveillance and balancing areas destined for fishing activity.
Although until now there has been no official public proposal, civil society organizations believe that any modification should take place through a participatory process to avoid aggravating territorial conflicts between the fishing and government sectors.
An unofficial proposal without consensus
Riverside fishermen in San Felipe, Baja California. Source: Daniela Reyes.
There are currently two polygons to protect the vaquita marina in the Upper Gulf of California. The first is the Refuge Zone, where the use of gillnets is not allowed, although other fishing gear is allowed. Within it is the Zero Tolerance Zone, where there has been the highest concentration of marine vaquitas and where any fishing activity and the transit of boats are prohibited, except for research purposes.
“Right now what we have tried to negotiate with everyone is the reduction of the polygon. They will be allowed to use gall nets in a larger area, but in exchange they are asking them to now respect the zero tolerance zone,” said Alejandro Olivera, representative in Mexico of the Center for Biological Diversity.
For environmental organizations, the main problem is that there is no official document that allows us to know precisely what the new polygon will be or what will be the criteria used to modify it.
Olivera noted that the information available so far comes from maps shown during meetings with some sectors of the community, but not from a public proposal under review.
“They showed a map to some fishermen and already with that they said they had the agreement of the fishermen but it wasn't all the fishermen, there are fishermen who are not being involved and there is no public document that can be reviewed in detail or on which to comment,” he said.
For example, at this meeting where the new polygon was presented, the statement only mentions that representatives of the Federations of Fishing Cooperatives of the Upper Gulf of California were present, leaving out the fishermen who are not part of them.
“There has always been an insensitivity on the part of the government to the fishing sector because it often manages the GIS without fishing representatives. For not taking care of such details, people get upset and hold tight to the discontent of the fishermen. Right now there is a very strong empowerment of fishermen who were left out of the agreements that the government agreed with the federations,” said Olivera.
In addition, he questioned that the process does not contemplate formal mechanisms of citizen participation and that a presentation of a map is considered a public consultation process.
“There will be no public consultation process; they are going to decree them (the new regulations) directly in the Official Gazette of the Federation. Supposedly it was going to be around for a few months, we don't know what's stopping its publication,” he said.
For the activist, the discussion should not be limited to the fishing sector, but should include other social and environmental actors due to the implications it would have for the conservation of the species and for land management.
Because of these situations, Pescadores Unidos de San Felipe emerged a year ago to make visible the interests of fishermen who do not feel represented by federations of fishing cooperatives.
“We feel displaced by conservation, they have us now at the height of decline, we are surviving nothing more. It used to be a pleasure to go fishing and now it's a fear. We don't know how to do anything other than fish. We are men and women of the sea and we want to preserve that tradition,” García said.
In addition to not being included, García pointed out that they have been harassed for two years by the Secretariat of the Navy (Semar), who do not let them work even if they comply with the rules.
Ana García with members of Pescadores Unidos de San Felipe. Source: Daniela Reyes.
An endangered species with a new distribution
The discussion of the new polygon occurs while the vaquita marina continues to be the most threatened marine mammal on the planet. In 2025, observation cruises estimated a minimum population of between seven and ten individuals.
Despite this, researchers and organizations dedicated to their protection say that there are encouraging signs.
“The positive news is that we've seen it. We have seen vaquitas with young for three years in a row. So that's a reason for hope. But we must not let our guard down,” said Julián Escutia, executive director of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
Escutia noted that the main threat to the species continues to be bycatch in gillnets that are currently banned in the area where the vaquita lives.
For his part, Lorenzo Rojas-Bracho, who heads the marine mammal group of the National Commission for Protected Natural Areas (Conanp), emphasized that the recovery of the population depends on completely eliminating this risk.
Lorenzo Rojas-Bracho, leader of the Conanp marine mammal group, presenting acoustic monitoring results. Source: Daniela Reyes.
However, Olivera points out that restrictions on fishing nets in the Refuge Zone or the Zero Tolerance Zone have never been complied with due to the incapacity of the authorities, mainly the National Aquaculture and Fisheries Commission (Conapesca).
According to the proposal shown by the GIS of the new polygon in the Upper Gulf of California, the area currently restricted to the use of gillnets is considered to be reduced by 85% and the Zero Tolerance Zone remains the same.
This concerns specialists, since the data obtained using hydrophones and visual observations between 2024 and 2025 detected the presence of vaquitas outside the areas where monitoring had been concentrated in previous years and a greater record of vaquitas outside the Zero Tolerance Zone.
“The last vaquitas are seeing themselves outside the zero tolerance zone, so what's going to happen there if they keep putting nets... it's going to be a big problem,” Olivera said.
Boats and fishing nets confiscated by Semar. Source: Daniela Reyes.
Conservation with community participation
The relationship between fishing communities and marine vaquita conservation programs has been marked for years by conflicts stemming from fishing restrictions. However, there are some efforts on the part of authorities and civil organizations that seek to promote a more active participation of the inhabitants of the region in the protection of the species.
For example, nine young people from San Felipe were trained during the Vaquita Marine Observer Training Campaign 2026, which took place from May 19 to 29, to become specialized observers of vaquita marina through the use of long-range binoculars, drones, individual identification techniques and environmental DNA sampling.
“We are building this capacity at the local level so that the rest of the year young people are sailing, using binoculars, flying their drone and collecting DNA samples,” said Domingo Zatarain, director of the Upper Gulf of California and Colorado River Delta Biosphere Reserve.
Search and observation of vaquita marina aboard the Seahorse. Source: Daniela Reyes.
The program is the result of a collaboration between Conanp, Semar and organizations such as Sea Shepherd, Pronatura and the Intercultural Center for Deserts and Oceans Studies (CEDO).
For Escutia, involving inhabitants of the region in monitoring efforts represents a way of bringing conservation closer to the communities that live with the species on a daily basis.
“What better way is that the people who are from here are also involved in their protection; we support and celebrate this effort with all rigor,” he said.
The organization, which has maintained vessels and surveillance equipment in the Upper Gulf for more than a decade, believes that community participation can contribute both to the generation of scientific information and to strengthening the link between the local population and the conservation of the marine vaquita.
The Sea Shepherd Seahorse ship in the Zero Tolerance Zone. Source: Daniela Reyes.
For now, while the federal government, led by Semarnat, is preparing the regulatory changes announced in February, civil organizations such as the Center for Biological Diversity insist that the discussion about the future of the marine vaquita habitat must take place in an open manner and with public access to technical information to support any modification of the protection park.
Comentarios (0)