The totoaba or totuava (''Totoaba macdonaldi'') is a species of
marine fish
Saltwater fish, also called marine fish or sea fish, are fish that live in seawater. Saltwater fish can swim and live alone or in a large group called a school.
Saltwater fish are very commonly kept in aquariums for entertainment. Many saltwater f ...
, a very large member of the drum family
Sciaenidae
Sciaenidae are a family of fish in the order Acanthuriformes. They are commonly called drums or croakers in reference to the repetitive throbbing or drumming sounds they make. The family consists of about 286 to 298 species in about 66 to 70 gen ...
that is
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...
to the
Gulf of California
The Gulf of California ( es, Golfo de California), also known as the Sea of Cortés (''Mar de Cortés'') or Sea of Cortez, or less commonly as the Vermilion Sea (''Mar Bermejo''), is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean that separates the Baja Ca ...
in
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
.
It is the only species in the genus ''Totoaba''. Formerly abundant and subject to an intensive
fishery
Fishery can mean either the enterprise of raising or harvesting fish and other aquatic life; or more commonly, the site where such enterprise takes place ( a.k.a. fishing ground). Commercial fisheries include wild fisheries and fish farms, both ...
, the totoaba has become rare, and is listed on
CITES Appendix I
CITES (shorter name for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, also known as the Washington Convention) is a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals from the threats of interna ...
,
and as endangered under the
Endangered Species Act
The Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA or "The Act"; 16 U.S.C. § 1531 et seq.) is the primary law in the United States for protecting imperiled species. Designed to protect critically imperiled species from extinction as a "consequence of ec ...
.
Life cycle
The totoaba can grow up to in length and in weight,
making it the largest species in the drum family,
together with the similar-sized
Chinese bahaba
The Chinese bahaba (''Bahaba taipingensis''), also known as the giant yellow croaker,Moore, M. (21 August 2012)The Telegraph. Retrieved 18 May 2019. is a critically endangered species of marine and brackish water fish in the family Sciaenidae. I ...
(''Bahaba taipingensis'') and
meagre (''Argyrosomus regius''). The totoabas' diet consists of
finned fish and
crustacean
Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group ...
s. Individuals may live up to 15 years, but sexual maturity is usually not reached until the fish are 6–7 years old. As totoabas
spawn
Spawn or spawning may refer to:
* Spawn (biology), the eggs and sperm of aquatic animals
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Spawn (character), a fictional character in the comic series of the same name and in the associated franchise
** '' Spawn: ...
only once a year, population growth is slow, with a minimum population
doubling time The doubling time is the time it takes for a population to double in size/value. It is applied to population growth, inflation, resource extraction, consumption of goods, compound interest, the volume of malignant tumours, and many other things th ...
of 4.5 to 15 years.
The totoaba spawn in the
Colorado River Delta
The Colorado River Delta is the region where the Colorado River flows into the Gulf of California (also known as the Sea of Cortez) in eastern Mexicali Municipality in the north of the state of Baja California in northwesternmost Mexico. The d ...
, which also serves as a nursery for the young fish.
The totoaba population is found in two distinct groups. Larval and juvenile stages occupy the Colorado delta, while the adult breeding population lives for most of the year in deeper water towards the middle of the Gulf of California. The adult population migrates to the Colorado delta in April and May to spawn. One-year-old totoabas are metabolically most efficient in
brackish water
Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estua ...
of about 20 parts per thousand (ppt)
salinity
Salinity () is the saltiness or amount of salt dissolved in a body of water, called saline water (see also soil salinity). It is usually measured in g/L or g/kg (grams of salt per liter/kilogram of water; the latter is dimensionless and equal ...
, a level that occurred naturally in the delta before the diversion of water from the river that occurred in the middle of the 20th century.
Threats
The diversion of water from the Colorado River within the United States leaves little or no fresh water to reach the delta, greatly altering the environment in the delta, and the salinity of the upper Sea of Cortez. The flow of fresh water to the mouth of the Colorado since the completion of the
Hoover and
Glen Canyon
Glen Canyon is a natural canyon carved by a length of the Colorado River, mostly in southeastern and south-central Utah, in the United States. Glen Canyon starts where Narrow Canyon ends, at the confluence of the Colorado River and the Dirty D ...
dams has been only about 4% of the average flow during the period from 1910 to 1920. This is considered to be a major cause of the depletion of the totoaba population.
[Review of CITES Appendixes Based on Resolution Conf. 9.24 (Rev.) ''Totoaba macdonaldi'' (Mexican seabass)](_blank)
Retrieved 11 July 2007[Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch - Totoaba](_blank)
With the loss of the freshwater flow from the river, salinity in the delta is usually 35 ppt or higher.
Poaching
Another threat to the totoaba is from human
poaching
Poaching has been defined as the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights.
Poaching was once performed by impoverished peasants for subsistence purposes and to supplement meager diets. It was set a ...
: the
swim bladder
The swim bladder, gas bladder, fish maw, or air bladder is an internal gas-filled Organ (anatomy), organ that contributes to the ability of many bony fish (but not cartilaginous fish) to control their buoyancy, and thus to stay at their curren ...
is a valuable commodity, as it is considered a delicacy in Chinese cuisine; the meat is also sought-after for making soups. It can fetch high prices – 200 bladders may be sold for $3.6 million at 2013 prices – as it is erroneously believed by many Chinese to be a treatment for fertility, circulatory, and skin problems.
The swim bladders are often smuggled to
Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...
where they are illegal, but import screenings are lax, and from there they are sometimes forwarded to the Chinese mainland where import screenings are stricter. This trade once focused on the
Chinese bahaba
The Chinese bahaba (''Bahaba taipingensis''), also known as the giant yellow croaker,Moore, M. (21 August 2012)The Telegraph. Retrieved 18 May 2019. is a critically endangered species of marine and brackish water fish in the family Sciaenidae. I ...
, but as its population became depleted, the trade shifted to the related totoaba.
[Juarez, Lorenzo M.; Pablo A. Konietzko; and Michael H. Schwarz (15 December 2016)]
"Totoaba Aquaculture and Conservation: Hope for an Endangered Fish from Mexico's Sea of Cortez"
''World Aquaculture Magazine''. Retrieved 18 May 2019. The illegal totoaba fishery also threatens the
vaquita
The vaquita ( ; ''Phocoena sinus'') is a species of porpoise endemic to the northern end of the Gulf of California in Baja California, Mexico. Averaging (females) or (males) in length, it is the smallest of all living cetaceans. The species i ...
, a critically endangered porpoise endemic to the northern Gulf of California that appears to be doomed to extinction unless the setting of
gillnets
Gillnetting is a fishing method that uses gillnets: vertical panels of netting that hang from a line with regularly spaced floaters that hold the line on the surface of the water. The floats are sometimes called "corks" and the line with corks is ...
in its habitat can be halted.
Conservation
It has been illegal to catch totoaba since 1975 when it was placed on the Mexican Endangered Species List.
In 1976 it was added to
CITES Appendix I
CITES (shorter name for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, also known as the Washington Convention) is a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals from the threats of interna ...
and in 1979 it was placed on the
US Endangered Species List.
On 16 April 2015,
Enrique Peña Nieto
Enrique Peña Nieto (; born 20 July 1966), commonly referred to by his initials EPN, is a Mexican politician who served as the 64th president of Mexico from 1 December 2012 to 30 November 2018. A member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party ...
, the
President of Mexico
The president of Mexico ( es, link=no, Presidente de México), officially the president of the United Mexican States ( es, link=no, Presidente de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos), is the head of state and head of government of Mexico. Under the Co ...
, announced a program of rescue and conservation of the vaquita and the totoaba, including closures and financial support to fishermen in the area. This closure is necessary as they were still caught as a
bycatch
Bycatch (or by-catch), in the fishing industry, is a fish or other marine species that is caught unintentionally while fishing for specific species or sizes of wildlife. Bycatch is either the wrong species, the wrong sex, or is undersized or juve ...
in the legal fishery for other species.
Some commentators believe the measures fall short of what is needed to save the vaquita.
The Chinese trade in totoaba swim bladders has been a primary reason for its decline. Despite being illegal, this trade often happened quite openly and traders reported being warned before checks by Chinese authorities, allowing them to hide the swim bladders. More recently, both Mexican and Chinese authorities have tightened checks and performed raids, resulting in large confiscations and several arrests.
The totoaba is suitable for
fish farming
upright=1.3, Salmon farming in the sea (mariculture) at Loch Ainort, Isle of Skye">mariculture.html" ;"title="Salmon farming in the sea (mariculture">Salmon farming in the sea (mariculture) at Loch Ainort, Isle of Skye, Scotland
Fish farming or ...
due to the relative ease of breeding it in captivity and its high growth rate.
[Dodd, Q. (27 November 2017)]
"Saving the totoaba for fun and profit"
Hatchery International. Retrieved 18 May 2019. Although this mainly is done to supply the food market,
tens of thousands of totoaba hatched in captivity have been released into the wild in an attempt to save the species.
[Kiy, R. (5 July 2018)]
"Fourth Release of Totoaba in Baja California Sur: A Unique Alliance Between Government and the Private Sector to Protect a Species at Risk of Extinction"
''Business Wire''. Retrieved 18 May 2019.
Commercial trade
Commercial fishing for totoaba began in the 1920s. The catch reached in 1943, but had fallen to only in 1975, when Mexico protected the totoaba and banned the fishery. Anecdotal evidence suggests that totoabas were very abundant prior to the start of the commercial fishery, but no hard evidence now indicates natural population size. Recent studies indicate that the totoaba population has stabilized at a low level, perhaps a bit larger than when the commercial fishery was banned in 1975. Totoabas are still caught as bycatch in fishing for other finned fish and for shrimp, and in
illegal fishing
Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU) is an issue around the world. Fishing industry observers believe IUU occurs in most fisheries, and accounts for up to 30% of total catches in some important fisheries.
Illegal fishing takes pl ...
for totoaba directly. Some totoabas are illegally exported to the United States, often misidentified as
white seabass
White seabass or white weakfish, ''Atractoscion nobilis'', is a species of croaker occurring from Magdalena Bay, Baja California, to Juneau, Alaska. They usually travel in schools over deep rocky bottoms (0–122 m) and in and out of kelp beds.
...
.
The government of
Baja California
Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...
has authorized commercial raising of totoaba in
fish farms
upright=1.3, Salmon farming in the sea (mariculture) at Loch Ainort, Isle of Skye">mariculture.html" ;"title="Salmon farming in the sea (mariculture">Salmon farming in the sea (mariculture) at Loch Ainort, Isle of Skye, Scotland
Fish farming or ...
.
Although now done at a relatively large scale by private fish farms,
much of the initial research in the captive keeping, breeding and raising of totoaba was done at the
Autonomous University of Baja California
The Autonomous University of Baja California (UABC) ( es, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California) is a public institution of higher education in Baja California. Established in 1957, UABC has its headquarters located in the city of Mexicali.
T ...
.
References
External links
Totoaba Mexfish.com.
sanfelipe.com.
Mexfish.com.
*Gene Kira
''Western Outdoor News''.
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1756572
Sciaenidae
Monotypic fish genera
Fish of the Gulf of California
Endemic fish of Mexico
Fish described in 1890
Taxa named by Charles Henry Gilbert