Vaquita Quotes

“I see the extinction of a species as an assault against the evolutionary history of this planet,” Tom Jefferson of VIVA Vaquita once told me. “For a species that has been evolving for millions of years to be snuffed out by our stupidity and greed, to me that is like the worst crime that can be committed.”
― Brooke Bessesen, Vaquita: Science, Politics, and Crime in the Sea of Cortez

“Conservation castes do exist. They influence the direction of public funds and attention, and they create professional competition. After all, it is hard for an egg-laying fish to contend with a baby-birthing porpoise, just as it is hard for a shy porpoise to contend with a gregarious dolphin or for a sea-dwelling dolphin to contend with a cuddly home- raised dog. As George Orwell surmised, “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
― Brooke Bessesen, Vaquita: Science, Politics, and Crime in the Sea of Cortez

“Sarah rotated her chair and glanced out her office window at the gray afternoon sky. “People who love the ocean often ask me what they can do to save it,” she said.
“And what do you tell them?”
She swiveled to face me. “Eat sustainably caught seafood. Ask where your seafood comes from and support people who are doing the right thing. And you will bite by bite change the world.”
― Brooke Bessesen, Vaquita: Science, Politics, and Crime in the Sea of Cortez

“Barb once told me, “You’d think that with the most endangered marine mammal on Earth, that you’d be able to get someone like National Geographic or Animal Planet to be interested. But they won’t touch it. They want full-frame underwater video, and if they can’t have that, tough, the species gets to go extinct.”
― Brooke Bessesen, Vaquita: Science, Politics, and Crime in the Sea of Cortez

“Ask a graybeard for a fish story, and you are bound to be regaled about a childhood catch that was “this big!” Any listening kids will giggle. They’ll think that he’s exaggerating or that his memory has failed—after all, no fish is that big.
Actually, fish really were that big. In fact, fishing preferentially removes larger specimens, causing a steady decrease in overall size. When the old man passes away, so does his baseline. Every generation naturally accepts the planet as it is, with ever-smaller fish, fewer birds, and less ice. That’s how humans as a whole unwittingly overlook drastic and devastating changes to the environment. The unfolding declines are broken into a series of baselines—ever shifting—so the overall loss is never felt by a single generation, never suffered by a single soul.”
― Brooke Bessesen, Vaquita: Science, Politics, and Crime in the Sea of Cortez

“I remembered Lorenzo telling me that CNN had approached him to do a piece on vaquita, but they wanted them leaping out of the water. He had to say, no, vaquitas don’t do that. So, CNN never came.”
― Brooke Bessesen, Vaquita: Science, Politics, and Crime in the Sea of Cortez