Encounter with Giants: The Whales of the Great Islands of the Sea of Cortes

Abstract

With the objective of making visible the richness of northern Mexico, represented in the Sea of Cortez. This conference - held at the Italian Institute of Culture in Mexico City in collaboration with the Italian Embassy and CIAD-CONACYT - presented four national and international specialists on the subject of marine mammals in the Gulf of California, coordinated by Monica Villegas of the Marsso Foundation and Dr. Emilia Giorgetti, Scientific Attaché of the Italian Embassy.

The MEC-EDUPAZ Magazine makes this goal its own, and in search of paths in search of sustainability, forms this itinerary between CULTURE and NATURE, which begins with the view of Dr. Vicente Quirarte, -poet and leading author of contemporary Mexican literature- through his contribution on the "Animal Planet".  And it continues in the form of a dialogue with the scientific tradition, -protagonized by two research groups headed by Mexican experts who are working in the Sea of Cortés-.

The research project "Encounter with Giants" dedicated to photo-document the marine mammals that visit this poorly monitored area.

In addition to publicly disseminating their presence in the Gulf of California and their behavior, generating a conservation approach to ocean pollution and how this affects marine animals.

It is important to ratify that the most important challenge to overcome is the impact of microplastics on marine biodiversity, since they coexist in the oceans. In addition to the need to deepen in the negative effects that come to have the marine ecosystems and their fauna derived from the presence of micro plastics, as well as the impact of macro plastics in the oceans.

Based on their distribution, behavior, feeding habits and genetics, the killer whales of the Gulf of California and Mexican Pacific constitute a distinctive population unit with respect to the rest of the ecotypes reported in other parts of the world.

In contrast with the comparative analysis of international data describing the high pollution prevailing in the Mediterranean Sea. In the framework of the planetary diagnosis of the World Atlas elaborated by the Marine Mammal Protected Areas (IMMA) group of the National Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The idea is to contain and reverse the main impacts, main risks and proposals for international cooperation for the oceans where whales live, in order to prioritize their consideration for conservation measures by governments, intergovernmental organizations, conservation groups and the general public.

The "Encounter with Giants" project is dedicated to photo-documenting the marine mammals that visit this poorly monitored area, as well as disseminating in public spaces both their presence in the Gulf of California and their behavior, generating a conservation approach to ocean pollution and how this affects marine animals.

Derived from the perspective of scientific knowledge, it has been reported that in this region, the sighting of giant marine cetaceans such as the blue whale, the fin whale and the sperm whale prevails, this body of water thanks to its semi-enclosed characteristic makes it a very productive place and therefore the biodiversity is very rich.

In order to promote interdisciplinary dialogues that allow us to approach other forms of non-human life with which we coexist as human beings. From this information, artists, creators and educators can work together to create aesthetic approaches to research and have harnessed the power of technology to develop proposals for dissemination and awareness to raise awareness of the risks to marine biodiversity on the planet we inhabit.

This dialogue concludes with the three allusions postulated by Helena González, Art Historian, when she asks herself about the "whale-memory", the "whale-poetry", the "whale-concept" and the "whale-sensation".

Critical of the distance of humans from the animal world, he assumes that the lived presence of the whale-real force is more powerful than the imagination.

In a special way, the journal MEC-EDUPAZ, UNAM extends its gratitude to Dr. Emilia Giorgetti for her extraordinary diplomatic work as scientific attaché of the Italian Embassy in Mexico, thanks to which the exchange and collaboration framework in favor of the fields of knowledge, increased significantly between the two countries.

Graciela Mota