In a powerful show of force against illegal fishing gear, Sea Shepherd and our partners have rescued 20 California sea lions from deadly entanglement in the Upper Gulf of California—an area plagued by abandoned fishing nets and black-market totoaba poaching.
Three of the animals were freed at Isla Consag during an intensive five-day rescue operation aboard Sea Shepherd’s Bob Barker, conducted in coordination with PROFEPA, CONANP, Cabet Cultura y Ambiente, Pesca ABC, and local residents of San Felipe.
The victims—two juveniles and a pup—all had plastic fishing net wrapped tightly around their necks. Using a combination of inhaled anesthesia and physical restraint, our team successfully cut them free, tagged them for monitoring, and released them back into the wild.
Another 17 sea lions were rescued at Isla San Jorge, Sonora just days earlier, including both males and females. These back-to-back operations are part of an ongoing campaign to combat the rising threat of ghost nets—discarded or lost fishing gear that continues killing long after it’s been abandoned.
Each Net Removed is a Life Saved
As part of the effort, Sea Shepherd also participated in training local teams—especially women from San Felipe—to use a new tool known as the “Gancho Diana”, which allows for fast, safe disentanglement.
These community members now lead photographic surveys of the sea lion colonies, identify types of fishing gear, and track entanglement rates to inform enforcement and prevention efforts.
The data collected during these missions is damning: ghost nets are everywhere, and California sea lions—though not endangered—are among the species paying the price.
The nets being removed are the same illegal gear used to catch totoaba, a fish trafficked on the black market for its bladder, and the same gear that has nearly wiped out the critically endangered vaquita.
Permanent Presence in the Vaquita Porpoise Refuge
Sea Shepherd operates the only two permanent large ships in the Vaquita Porpoise Refuge—Bob Barker and Seahorse—patrolling side by side through waters infested with illegal gillnets.
These nets are set for totoaba, a trafficked fish whose black-market trade has pushed the vaquita to the edge of extinction and continues to kill indiscriminately.
Both ships serve as powerful mobile platforms—equipped with thermal drones, sonar, and rapid-response teams—designed to locate, document, and recover these deadly nets before they claim more lives.
This article was first published by Sea Shepherd on 28 April 2025.
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