Two fishermen were injured off the coast of Baja California when their small boat crashed into a larger vessel used by the Sea Shepherd group to try to prevent the disappearance of the vaquita seal, the environmental organization said.
The attack is the latest in a growing spiral of protests by fishermen using banned nets in the Gulf of California, the only place in the world where vaquita lives. It is believed that only a few dozen remain, making it the most endangered marine mammal on the planet.
Fishing nets seized by Sea Shepherd vessels are expensive, so fishermen often harass the group’s boats in an attempt to recover them, claiming that the Mexican government has not compensated them for the loss of income they have suffered. The groups that represented them were not available to comment.
Sea Shepherd said its vessel, Farley Mowat, was removing illegal settlements from the Gulf of Water, also known as the Sea of Cortez, when people in a group of about half a dozen small, open fishing boats began he throws Molotov cocktails at her. the ship, lighting fires at the bow and elsewhere.
The attackers also threw lead weights for the nets to the crew, the group reported, which released a video showing a fishing vessel approaching Farley Mowat at high speed and crashing to the side.
Two of the boat’s occupants were rescued from the sea by the Sea Shepherd crew and Mexican Marines, who often accompany the crew on these tours. One received CPR because he was not breathing, and Marina transferred them both to a hospital.
He confirmed that the injuries occurred in a “collision” and distributed photos of the men transferred by helicopter for treatment, but did not provide details about their health.
Two other men boarded Farley Mowat and threatened the crew and sailors, the group reported.
“This morning’s attack is the latest in a series of increasingly violent attacks on Sea Shepherd ships over the past month,” the agency said in a statement. “The attackers threw Molotov cocktails, knives, hammers, flares, fuel bottles and other lethal projectiles at ships, their crews and military personnel on board.
Sea Shepherd works closely with Mexican authorities in net removal operations, but fishermen are increasingly daring to confront sailors and crew members.
The vaquita population has been drastically decimated by the illegal use of nets to catch totoaba, whose swimming bladders can be sold for thousands of dollars in China.