Chinese Customs Finally Crack Down On Trafficking Parts Of The Totoaba Fish That Threatens The Last 15 Remaining Vaquita Porpoises On Earth

Zak Smith, Senior Attorney for the Nature Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) said in a statement, “The Chinese Government is stepping up to meet its commitment to eradicate the illegal totoaba trade in China. We hope that the Mexican government will implement equally vigorous enforcement efforts to combat totoaba trafficking. We desperately need international cooperation to eliminate trade in tototaba, which is driving the endangered vaquita porpoise, of which there are less than 15 left in the world, to extinction.”

Background

Facing extinction, the totoaba is listed as an Appendix I Species under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), meaning international commercial trade of the totoaba fish is prohibited. Endemic to the Gulf of California in Mexico, the totoaba is poached for Chinese cuisine and gifts, under the false assumption that it could treat health problems or provide other benefits. Illegal totoaba fishing in Mexico also threatens the vaquita, a critically endangered porpoise listed under the Endangered Species Act, because vaquita become entangled and then drown in gillnets originally set to capture totoaba. For more information about trilateral efforts between the United States, China and Mexico to eradicate totoaba trafficking and to save the vaquita, read ”China Joins Fight to Save the Vaquita as the Mexican Porpoise Slides Closer to Extinction.”