US President Joe Biden’s decision not to embargo products from Mexico despite the country’s failure to halt illegal wildlife trade threatening the critically endangered vaquita porpoise has drawn fire from the environmental NGO community.
Non-profits Center for Biological Diversity, Animal Welfare Institute and Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) say the decision has “diminished the effectiveness” of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) by not stopping the illegal fishing and trade of totoaba, an endangered fish poached for its swim bladder.
A US law called the Pelly Amendment authorises the president to act, including by imposing trade sanctions, against countries determined to be violating international conservation treaties such as CITES. But instead of issuing sanctions, Biden called for a high-level dialogue between the United States and Mexico on protecting the vaquita from trafficking and directed U.S. agencies to reassess Mexico’s efforts by July 2024 with the potential for trade sanctions at that time.
“I’m disappointed in the US government for doing so little to save vaquitas from extinction,” said Sarah Uhlemann, international programme director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “These are the rarest marine mammals in the world, and yet the United States has let the Mexican government off the hook again. Mexico has a long, painful history of failed promises on protecting these little porpoises. The United States needs to apply the strongest pressure and ban seafood from Mexico until there’s real enforcement on illegal fishing in their habitat. The last 10 vaquitas are at stake.”
Vaquita are believed the world’s most critically endangered porpoise, with as few as 15 animals remaining in the wild. Vaquita become entangled in illegal gillnets set to catch totoaba, shrimp and other species in Mexico’s Upper Gulf of California. Totoaba swim bladders are trafficked primarily to China, where they are sold at exorbitant prices to make soup with purported medicinal benefits.
For decades, Mexico has failed to adequately enforce its fishing and wildlife trade laws in the Upper Gulf, causing the vaquita to decline from nearly 600 animals in 1997.
“Seven years ago, Mexico promised the United States that it would permanently ban the use of gillnets in all fisheries throughout the vaquita’s range,” said Zak Smith, director of global biodiversity conservation at NRDC. “Today, gillnets are still routinely used in vaquita habitat and the species’ population has plummeted to around 10 individuals. The United States should be using all the tools at its disposal, including an embargo on targeted products, to compel Mexico to meet its international obligations and save the species.”
In 2014, in response to Mexico’s failures, conservationists petitioned the Interior Department to certify Mexico under the Pelly Amendment. In May 2023, after nine years and a federal lawsuit filed by conservation groups, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland certified that Mexican nationals are diminishing the effectiveness of CITES by “engaging in taking and trade of the totoaba fish and the related incidental take of vaquita.” Following such certification, the Pelly Amendment required the president to decide whether to embargo Mexican wildlife products to prompt Mexico’s compliance.
“With only a dozen vaquita remaining, the Biden administration must remain vigilant, and ensure that Mexico does not continue to evade its CITES responsibilities,” said DJ Schubert, a wildlife biologist at the Animal Welfare Institute. “We believe that strong sanctions against Mexico are warranted, and we will continue to demand that the United States exercise all options to ensure Mexico does everything in its power to save the vaquita. The US public will not tolerate our government being complicit in the extinction of a species.”
On 17 July 2023, Biden advised that he wouldn’t be directing the Secretary of the Treasury to impose trade measures on Mexican products. Instead, he has directed executive departments and agencies to convene high-level dialogue with the Government of Mexico to discuss the steps it will take to reduce illegal trafficking of totoaba and enhance conservation of the vaquita. Through this dialogue, Mexico will be encouraged to strengthen and implement its CITES compliance action plan and comply with all relevant CITES decisions regarding totoaba and vaquita, including the expansion of enforcement efforts.
The US will also establish a schedule of at least quarterly meetings with Mexico to review its CITES Compliance Action Plan implementation, with a focus on enhanced monitoring and enforcement actions to prevent and deter totoaba fishing and trafficking. Totoaba and vaquita enforcement matters will also be included on the agenda for the next High Level Security Dialogue between the two countries.
