The Mexican government has approved a new regulation to save a threatened porpoise, the vaquita, and to promote sustainable fishing in the upper Gulf of California.
Over 38,000 people from 127 countries signed WWF's petition to Mexico President Enrique Peña Nieto requesting measures to save the vaquita and allow fishers to continue to earn a living through sustainable fishing.
“With this norm (regulation), drift gillnets - one of the nets used in artisanal shrimping operations in which vaquitas die incidentally - will be gradually substituted, during a three year period, for selective fishing gears that does not kill this porpoise, but that allow fishers to keep earning their livelihoods”, said Omar Vidal, WWF-Mexico’s Director General.
Of all cetaceans, the vaquita is the only one endemic to Mexico, has the most restricted distribution (it only lives in the upper Gulf of California), is the smallest (reaches a maximum length of 1.5 meters) and faces the highest risk of extinction. It is estimated that less than 200 vaquitas currently survive.
The new regulation establishes shrimping standards in Mexico and defines the fishing gears permitted in different zones of the country.
