Mexico Scrambles To Save World’s Rarest Marine Mammal
Mexico introduced a plan this week to prevent the extinction of the world's smallest and rarest porpoise. With a mere 97 members left in the wild, the vaquita could soon disappear without the nation's help.
The vaquita is the only marine mammal who lives in Mexico's waters alone. Called the "little cow" of the sea, the animal was once believed to be a mythical creature and is famous for his distinctively cute facial features.
A proposed $37 million ban would prevent gillnet fishing in most of the upper Sea of Cortez, a practice that uses long nets that often entangle cetaceans (whales and dolphins) as bycatch. Fishers in the Sea of Cortez use gillnets to catch endangered totoaba, a large fish whose swim bladder is sought as a delicacy on the Chinese market. The species is illegal to fish, but demand is high - one fish can earn a whopping a $5,000 in the U.S. and $10,000 in Asia, according to the Smithsonian Institution.
Mexico's Agriculture and Fisheries Department has proposed that the ban would pay fishers to patrol the critically endangered vaquita's habitat and report other fishers who were gillnetting. It would be in place for two years, and would supplement a protected area already established at the mouth of the Colorado River delta.
(NMFS)
Now, the ban will be subject to a period of public comment, and could be put in place in the coming months. It would be a welcome move for conservationists, who've been frustrated by the lack of movement to save the "little cow." For a species who was only discovered in 1959 and is now teetering on the edge of extinction, that protection would be a welcome change.
See this page for more information on how to help save the vaquita.