Mexico’s pledge to protect porpoise elicits expert doubt
MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s Environment Department promised to do more to protect the endangered vaquita marina porpoise Thursday, to head off trade sanctions by the international wildlife body CITES.
The department said several steps will be taken, including controlling illegal gillnet fishing that can trap and kill the vaquita, which is the world’s most endangered marine mammal.
But experts had misgivings, saying Mexico has made almost exactly the same promises in the past and failed to fulfill them, and has even gone back on some previous pledges.
There are estimated to be as few as eight vaquitas left in the Gulf of California, also known as the Sea of Cortez, the only place it lives. The species cannot be captured, held or bred in captivity.
In late March, CITES called on its 184 member countries to stop trade with Mexico for products linked to sensitive species, such as orchids, cactuses and skins from crocodiles and snakes, as punishment for continued fishing in the vaquita protection zone in the upper Gulf of California.
The body said Thursday those sanctions had been dropped following the agreement with Mexico.
CITES — the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora — regulates trade and protection for endangered species. Trade is permitted in some protected species, like crocodiles harvested for use in shoes or handbags, but such trade is closely regulated.
Alejandro Olivera, the Mexico representative for the Center for Biological Diversity, expressed skepticism over Mexico’s announcement.
“The Mexican government has been promising this since it published a plan in September 2020. I don’t know what the difference is going to be now,” he said.
Mexico has been slow to stop illegal gillnet fishing for totoaba, a fish whose swim bladder is considered a delicacy in China. The nets used to catch totaba also trap and drown vaquitas.
The Mexican government promised CITES it would control the approved landing and launching zones for fishing boats and ensure they do not intrude on the relatively small “exclusion zone” where the last vaquitas were seen.