US Fish and Wildlife certifies Mexico's failure to protect vaquita marina

[Judi Lynn]

Stemming from a 2014 petition, the certification was a long time coming, conservationists said, highlighting how many vaquitas died while it “languished” in bureaucracy.

CODY COPELAND / May 26, 2023



Tourists play on the beach in San Felipe, Baja California, which is the hub of the illegal totoaba trade that is wiping out the vaquita marina. (Cody Copeland/Courthouse News)

MEXICO CITY (CN) — President Joe Biden must now consider sanctioning Mexico for noncompliance with an international wildlife treaty after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service certified that country's failure to curb the illegal fishing that is wiping out the vaquita marina.

The illicit fishing operation powering the black market for totoaba swim bladders is threatening the existence of the world’s smallest porpoise, the vaquita marina, which gets caught and drowns in totoaba gill nets.

Prized in traditional Chinese medicine for its alleged salubrious qualities, the totoaba’s swim bladder has been dubbed the “cocaine of the sea.” It averages thousands of dollars per pound on the black market, and financial speculation has been observed to bring that price as high as $45,000 a pound.

This trade “diminishes the effectiveness of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), a treaty for the conservation of endangered or threatened species,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a pair of letters sent to both houses of Congress Friday. The USFWS is an agency in the Department of the Interior.

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https://www.courthousenews.com/us-fish-and-wildlife-certifies-mexicos-failure-to-protect-vaquita-marina/