International Whaling Commission issues extinction alert for Mexico's threatened vaquita porpoise
International Whaling Commission issues extinction alert for Mexico's threatened vaquita porpoise
The International Whaling Commission (IWC) issued an extinction alert for the endangered vaquita porpoise on Monday, whose population, as per reports, is estimated to have plummeted to less than a dozen.
This is the institution's first-ever extinction warning.
The alarmingly endangered vaquita, which is also the world's most miniature porpoise and aboriginal to Mexico's Gulf of California, has been threatened by illegal gill net fishing for an endangered fish called the totoaba, whose bladder is highly valued in Asia.
Mexico's government has been under constant pressure to ramp up efforts in order to crack down on the practice.
In a report, the IWC's scientific committee underlined an 83% decline in the vaquita's population between the years 2015 and 2018 to only nine or 10 of the marine animals in total.
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The alert, as per the IWC, arises from its belief that a new mechanism is needed "to voice extinction concerns for an increasing range of cetacean species and populations."
However, the institution said that it believes that full enforcement of the ban on gill netting in the animal's core habitat could give the vaquita "a chance of recovery."
"The extinction of the vaquita is inevitable unless 100% of gillnets are substituted immediately with alternative fishing gears that protect the vaquita and the livelihoods of fishers," it said.
In the month of May, the United States interior secretary declared that Mexico failed in making efforts to put an end to the illegal wildlife trade threatening the vaquita, but a trade ban was ruled out by the US government in the month of July.
(With inputs from agencies)
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