A US ban on seafood caught by gillnets in the Upper Gulf of California in Mexico remains in place after the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit rejected a challenge on the ban by the Trump administration.
This is promising news for the critically endangered vaquita porpoise, one of the rarest and most threatened marine mammal species on the planet, with an estimated 15 individuals remaining.
Vaquitas — also known as the pandas of the sea — are the world’s smallest porpoise, measuring only 1.5 meters (5 feet). They live in a very tiny area in the Upper Gulf of California and are being wiped out due to the illegal use of gillnets in the region. Because of their size, these shy marine mammals are easily entangled and drown in the dangerous gillnets — used to catch shrimp and other species of seafood.
In the last two decades, 95 percent of the vaquita population has been killed, and experts are warning that this species could be extinct within the next two years.
When the case was first brought to the courts in July this year by the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Animal Welfare Institute, the federal government attempted to get it dismissed but was overruled.
“Evidence shows that vaquita are killed by gillnet fishing and are on the verge of extinction: because the statutory duty to ban fish imports resulting in such excessive marine mammal bycatch is mandatory, the Government must comply with it,” reported the court at the time.
Since then, the administration has tried to modify or reverse the ban three times – thankfully, they have been unsuccessful.
“The US government is wasting its time and money trying to reverse the court’s order, which will only accelerate the extinction of the critically endangered vaquita,” said DJ Schubert, a wildlife biologist for the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI). “It’s time for the government to accept the courts’ decisions, ensure full implementation of the ban, and continue to work with the government of Mexico to save the vaquita.”
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Every year, humans make our Planet poorer in life biodiversity, we are the most destructive and most stupid species on Earth….I doubt we can save the porpoise vaquitas since there are only 15 individuals left, but we should try all the same!
Saving them, so important.
Finally, it’s about time!
Thank you to all of you who work so hard to here the animals.
Thank the heavens there is still someone with their faculties in charge of some things. We need to demand Trump administration’s roll back of any/all protections be shut down at every turn!!! He is a MENACE to the welfare of our country, the welfare of our environment, the welfare of our people, public lands, indigenous animals, etc…. everything we value & hold dear. This man does NOTHING that is in the beat best interest of America. It’s all about $$$.
Thank you to everyone who fought and continue to fight on behalf of what is just and right.
Please save Vaquita porpoise.
It is disgusting that the people who work in the government are so adamant about removing the ban that would protect these little babies…that is just pure evil…it’s unconscionable. Thank you to all those fighting so hard to save these little guys!
Thank you for stopping the killing of this highly endangered animal before it is finally extinct.
Trump likes to kill everything. He kills the air, the water, the lands, the wildlife Latest news is he is abandoning the lead restriction in bullets. That kills so many American eagles and others. The wolves protection is gone, Mustang protection is worse, children incarcerated for months without parents. When will this insanity end?
You are brain washed. That is for sure and for certain. There is no ban on lead in bullets, to begin with. There are a few select places that it is against the law to use lead bullets, but these are very, very few. The lead in bullets does not cause a problem killing, unless something is shot with one. Yes, protection of Wolves, where their population has been determined to be strong, has been lessened. The US Fish and Wildlife monitor and determine this. This happened during the Obama Administration, before Trump got in office. https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/pets/chi-great-lakes-wolves-20150212-story.html The wild horse and burro protection has been up and down for decades. You need to go out and visit areas where the wild horse and burros live, and see the destruction they have done on the land. The herds have to be managed. They trap the horses for sale to people, but no one wants them, because they are inbred and stunted, for the most part. Some are nice animals. The children you are talking about, were separated from their parents under Obama, before Trump. Those parents should be horse whipped. They committed a crime, entering the US illegally, and exposing their children to incarceration, to begin with! The insanity you speak of, is led by the Liberal Democrats.
Glad this has been done
I am against animal cruelty
OK, now……see what our Federal Government is doing or trying to. It’s obvious this Federation is no.1 wasting our tax dollars on and no.2 is PROVING they don’t give a ding-dong damn about ANY wildlife……..endangered or not. Sorry, sorry, sorry! But I am SO HAPPY the courts went over them and kept the ban in place.
uhhh, that little photoshop trick to spray red around the fin, belongs on amateur hour. Stay with the facts, and quit trying to embellish them, to meet your needs.
What are you even talking about? Using Photoshop to add blood to the corpse of a dead endangered porpoise? Why bother? It is already well documented that these animals are critically endangered, and the evidence (and photograph) speaks for itself. I’m not sure what anyone would accomplish by embellishing that photo. And I’m not sure what you are trying to accomplish with your inane comment. Why don’t you go troll somewhere else?
That is not blood, That color was applied by photoshop onto the picture. I am against illegal by-catch in nets, as much as anyone, but I cannot stand someone changing the facts, to try to strengthen their argument.
Here’s a link to that same “Photoshopped” image you are referring to. There are also other “digitally manipulated” images of other dead animals bleeding into the water in case you’d like to go there and prove your point.
Here’s the link: https://blueocean.net/vaquita-countdown/
So, it was photo shopped before it was published here, but photo-shopped, it was. They need to limit the use of nets, where a species is in danger, but the fish of the sea, are meant for man’s consumption.