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Photo courtesy from Mongabay
“The vaquita porpoise is one of the victims of the mismanagement of the fishing sector in Mexico” | INTERVIEW
MEXICO
Tuesday, April 04, 2023, 06:50 (GMT + 9)
The following is an excerpt from an article published by Mongabay:
- In the absence of an adequate plan to avoid the extinction of the vaquita, an endemic species of the Upper Gulf of California, Mexico was sanctioned by the Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
- The sanction implies that Mexico cannot commercialize species of flora and fauna that are listed in CITES. This measure affects communities throughout the country that export flowers, crocodile skin or cactus.
- In an interview with Mongabay Latam, biologist Alejandro Olivera, from the Center for Biological Diversity, takes a tour of the history that has brought the vaquita to the brink of extinction. This story links several of the great problems that Mexico has: illegality, impunity, disdain for nature and neglect of the fishing sector.
Scientists and members of non-governmental organizations have alerted him for at least a year. Mexico, they said, is one step away from being penalized for not taking the necessary actions to stop the extinction of the vaquita (Phocoena sinus), a small porpoise that only inhabits the Upper Gulf of California. The calls of the specialists only met with deaf ears.
On March 27, 2023, the Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) called on the Member States to suspend all commercial exchange with Mexico of the species included in the Appendices of this convention. . With this, the country enters an unpleasant list that also includes nations such as Afghanistan, Liberia and Libya. The sanction affects, above all, dozens of communities that have developed sustainable management programs around various species of flora and fauna and that export crocodile skin, orchids, cactus or candelilla, an endemic plant of Mexico with which natural wax is made and whose sale represents an important source of income for families in the north of the country.
Vaquitas in the Upper Gulf. Photo: Paula Olsen/NOAA
The CITES Secretariat notified that the sanction will be in force until Mexico presents an adequate action plan that guarantees, with well-established deadlines, that everything will be done to stop the extinction of the vaquita.
For just over a decade, this porpoise of only 1.5 meters has been considered the most endangered mammal on the planet. Its population declined due to incidental fishing. Vaquitas are trapped in nets, known as seine nets, which are used to catch shrimp and illegally fish for totoaba (Totoaba macdonaldi). This fish is also Critically Endangered because its swim bladders are sold in Asia, especially China.
Illegal fishing in the Upper Gulf. Photo: courtesy of the Center for Biological Diversity.
In an interview with Mongabay Latam, biologist Alejandro Olivera takes a tour of the history of illegality and impunity that triggered the sanction. "If Mexico loses this species, it would go down in history as the country that did not want to save it due to lack of law enforcement, for leaving the fishing sector in oblivion," says the representative in Mexico of the Center for Biological Diversity, an organization non-governmental organization dedicated to the protection of endangered species and which has extensive work in the area of the Upper Gulf of California.
—What led the CITES Committee to apply this sanction to Mexico?
—Since the meeting of the Permanent Committee that was held in the city of Paris, in March 2022, several countries —including the United States and Israel— raised their voices and requested sanctions against Mexico. They pointed out that the country continued to fail to comply with several resolutions and that illegal fishing in the Upper Gulf continued, despite the fact that it had been given time to address this problem. This laid the foundations so that, through a resolution of the Standing Committee, during the COP held in Panama it was decided to give Mexico the deadline of February 28, 2023 to present an action plan that would demonstrate that it really protected the sea cow.
Upper Gulf of California. Infographic taken from the Profepa page.
Mexico presented a first draft that was deficient, because it did not establish specific times or goals. The second version delivered by the Mexican government did not comply with what was requested either. The CITES Secretariat stressed that it was necessary to establish specific dates for the actions, but Mexico did not comply.
It should be noted that civil society organizations do not know what this Action Plan says. We requested them through the Access to Information Law, but the Ministry of Foreign Affairs classified it as confidential for a period of one year, so we do not know the content. (Continues...)
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