Seri Indian wood carving of a Vaquita, from Sonora Mexico. Similar carvings are common in the tourist trade along the West Coast of Mexico and Baja California. Made from desert ironwood or mesquite, they depict animals, birds, cactuses, etc. The form originated from the indigenous handiwork of the isolated Seri tribe, native to the western shore of the Gulf of California ("Sea of Cortez"), including Tiburon Island. Older Seri carvings can be distinguished by their tender, closely-observed representations of nature (and by the absence of power tool marks).
This one is particularly special, as it represents a Vaquita (Phocoena sinus), a vanishingly-rare marine mammal that only lives in the far northern end of the Gulf. The Vaquita is the world's rarest and smallest ceatacean, at less than 5 feet long. The species has been decimated by commercial fishing. It's the Vaquita's bad luck to live in the same waters as the Totoaba, a rare fish whose swim bladder is highly prized in Chinese medicine, and which is itself being fished to extinction. At this point, it is thought there are no more than 20 Vaquita left, probably not enough to maintain the species. However, heroic efforts are being made by environmental groups and the Mexican Navy to protect the species.
Seri Indian wood carving of a Vaquita, from Sonora Mexico. Similar carvings are common in the tourist trade along the West Coast of Mexico and Baja California. Made from desert ironwood or mesquite, they depict animals, birds, cactuses, etc. The form originated from the indigenous handiwork of the isolated Seri tribe, native to the western shore of the Gulf of California ("Sea of Cortez"), including Tiburon Island. Older Seri carvings can be distinguished by their tender, closely-observed representations of nature (and by the absence of power tool marks).
This one is particularly special, as it represents a Vaquita (Phocoena sinus), a vanishingly-rare marine mammal that only lives in the far northern end of the Gulf. The Vaquita is the world's rarest and smallest ceatacean, at less than 5 feet long. The species has been decimated by commercial fishing. It's the Vaquita's bad luck to live in the same waters as the Totoaba, a rare fish whose swim bladder is highly prized in Chinese medicine, and which is itself being fished to extinction. At this point, it is thought there are no more than 20 Vaquita left, probably not enough to maintain the species. However, heroic efforts are being made by environmental groups and the Mexican Navy to protect the species.
