V-log | A boy on a mission: #SaveTheVaquita
Description: The vaquita is the world's smallest and most endangered porpoise, living only in Mexico's Upper Gulf of California. Only about 30 vaquita remain, and the Mexican shrimp industry is a prime contributor to the species precipitous decline. You can help! Make your voice heard through your purchasing decisions and by contacting key Mexican decision-makers
The US Court of International Trade has ordered the Trump administration to ban seafood imports from Mexico caught with gillnets that kill the critically endangered vaquita porpoise. As few as 15 vaquita remain, and almost half the population drowns in fishing gillnets each year. Absent immediate additional protection, the tiny porpoise could be extinct by 2021.
The import ban covers all fish and fish products from Mexican commercial fisheries that use gillnets within the vaquita’s range in the Upper Gulf of California. This includes shrimp, corvina (drum fish), sierra (Spanish mackerel) and chano (bigeye croaker) from the area.
In its decision, the court found that ”the number of permissible vaquita deaths under the [Marine Mammal Protection Act] is being exceeded, that an embargo is legally required, and that the species is at risk of extinction.” The court explained that the risk of the vaquita’s extinction from continued gillnet fishing in the Gulf outweighed the costs of an embargo. The court cited experts’ statements that “extinction is . . . inevitable unless gillnets are completely removed from vaquita habitat,” and that th
V-log | A boy on a mission: #SaveTheVaquita