U.S. criticizes Mexico over protection of vaquitas, stops short of sanctions

[Judi Lynn]

Liam Coates Cronkite News//July 20, 2023

Mexico is not living up to its responsibility to protect the threatened totoaba fish and the critically endangered vaquita, a small porpoise of which there are only around a dozen left in the Gulf of California, the Biden administration said this week.

But the president stopped short of imposing trade measures on Mexico as a result, drawing rebukes from environmental groups that demanded a harsher response.

“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,” Sarah Uhlemann of the Center for Biological Diversity said in an emailed statement.

But President Joe Biden, in a letter to Congress Monday, said only that trade measures could be imposed a year from now, when a group of Cabinet agencies is to report back on whether Mexico has “reduced the illegal harvest and trafficking of totoaba and enhanced the conservation of vaquita.”

. . .

“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 to only around a dozen today,” the statement said. “Mexico has a long, painful history of failed promises on protecting these little porpoises.”

More:
https://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2023/07/20/u-s-criticizes-mexico-over-protection-of-vaquitas-stops-short-of-sanctions/

[Srkdqltr]

1. I don't know what to say about this.

I understand, but with what we allow to happen to people at the border I really think we should keep out of fish treatment.