-Source-Los Angeles Times-
To protect one of the most endangered species in the world, an international trade court judge ordered the Trump administration Thursday to ban all seafood harvested with gill nets in Mexico’s northern Gulf of California — a bold move with significant political and economic consequences.
The order to save the vaquita porpoise, nicknamed “panda of the sea” for its chubby frame and black-ringed eyes, comes despite arguments from the U.S. government that a ban could negatively affect ongoing negotiations with Mexico. Earlier this week, the U.S. attorney general’s office tried to get the court to delay its decision for 30 days.
The ban, which affects an estimated $16 million worth of fish and shrimp, was a victory for conservationists who brought this issue to court in March after a decade of rescue efforts failed to prevent vaquita from getting fatally entangled in gill nets in Mexico’s waters.
Scientists say the vaquita population has dwindled from 567 in 1997 to fewer than 20 today. Its population drops by about half each year. The species’ range is about 1,500 square miles — the smallest of any marine mammal. Its territory overlaps with commercial fisheries that catch shrimp, curvina, chano and sierra, as well as illegal fishing operations that target the endangered totoaba.
Conservationists hope the embargo will put pressure on the Mexican government to ban the use of gill nets — vertical walls of mesh that snag fish by their gills when they try to escape — and indiscriminately capture vaquita as well. Read more
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