Court Bans Mexican Seafood Imports to Save the Vaquita — the World’s Cutest Dolphin

U.S. Court of International Trade Judge Gary Katzmann issued a preliminary injunction on Thursday banning the import of any seafood from Mexico that had been caught with gill nets, which are blamed for the near-exctincion of the vaquita porpoise.

As Breitbart News noted in 2015, the vaquita, which is also called thee “Gulf of California porpoise” or “Cochito,” is the smallest known cetacean and has been disappearing because of gill nets — which trap fish, indiscriminately, by the gills — and because poachers have been searching for another endangered fish, the tobatoba. The vaquita is also popular among conservationists because of its unique appearance: dark circles around its eyes give it the appearance of a panda bear, or a cute plush toy.

The Los Angeles Times notes:

The ban, which impacts an estimated $16-million worth of fish and shrimp, was a victory for conservationists who brought this issue to court in March after a decade of rescue efforts failed to prevent vaquita from getting fatally entangled in gill nets in Mexico’s waters.

Scientists say the vaquita population has dwindled from 567 in 1997 to fewer than 20 today. Its population drops about half each year. The species’ range is about 1,500 square miles — the smallest of any marine mammal. Its territory overlaps with commercial fisheries that catch shrimp, curvina, chano and sierra, as well as illegal fishing operations that target the endangered totoaba.

The Mexican government has been criticized for failing to protect the vaquita, despite promising to do so. The Trump administration had been trying to delay the court’s action due to its potential effect on trade negotiations with Mexico.

Environmentalists celebrated the decision, and warned that Mexico would need to take immediate action to save the vaquita and restore seafood exports. The National Resources Defense Council, which filed the lawsuit. said in a press release: “Absent immediate and robust action from Mexico, the tiny porpoise could be extinct by 2021. As few as 15 of the porpoises remain.”

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.