Mexico wants to ban nets, save endangered porpoise

Mexican authorities are proposing a $37 million plan to ban gillnet fishing in most of the upper Sea of Cortez. The plan would compensate fishermen for stopping the use of nets that often sweep up endangered vaquita marina – the world’s smallest porpoise – along with their catch. The vaquita is threatened by gillnet fishing for totoaba, a huge, heavy fish whose swim bladder is prized by chefs in China. There is already a protected reserve area around the mouth of the Colorado River delta, but the new proposal would greatly increase the no net-fishing area southward. The ban would initially be in place for two years.

If this works well, Mexico will have given the world a unique example to demonstrate that it is possible to save an endangered species and support sustainable fisheries.

Omar Vidal of the World Wildlife Fund