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Between 30 degrees north and south of the equator, mantas are found world wide. Here they are fortunately protected. Every year, thousands of these magnificient animals are killed by indiscriminate gill nets. Happily the Mexican Navy enforces the no fishing zone here and wants reports from the commerical dive boats and private vessels here. That is why they issue permits and allow us to visit.
The dive boats report illegal fishing within the 12 mile zone of the islands several times per year as the Asian market wants shark fins. They “fin” the sharks and throw them back to drown. We heard an unbelievable statistic that 175,000 sharks are killed world wide daily (but we think that might have been yearly). The dive boats told us that due to the Asian markets pushing the finning of the sharks, their population is down 90% here in the last 10 years.
Isla San Benedicto – Revillagigedos Archipelago, Mexico
February 2, 2009