The race against time has resumed off Mexico against the extinction of the Pacific porpoise, the world’s most endangered marine mammal due to illegal fishing fueled by demand in China.
The Mexican navy and a boat from Sea Shepherd, an NGO supported by Leonardo Di Caprio, resumed the sea on Wednesday in the Gulf of California at a “critical moment”, the organizers said on Thursday.
There are only about twenty individuals left in the Gulf, also called the Sea of Cortes, its only sanctuary in the world, according to Sea Shepherd.
The “miracle operation” has reduced by 70% the illegal fishing of phocoena sinus, the smallest cetacean in the world (1.5 meters, 50 kilos). “It’s encouraging, but we need to do better,” Sea Shepherd chief Pritam Singh said.
Known as the “panda of the seas”, the Pacific porpoise has been decimated by the nets of fishermen.
Called “vaquita marina” (“little sea cow”) in Spanish, the porpoise has been the collateral victim of the totoaba fish fishery, whose “bladder-fin” sells for up to 8,000 dollars per kilo in China due to its supposed medicinal properties.
The “vaquita” has been considered an endangered species since 1996.
Leonardo di Caprio, actor of the film “Cosmic denial” (“Don’t look up”) on the denial of climate change, produced a film on the fight against the extinction of “vaquitas” and totoabas, “Sea of Shadow “.
“When Mexican drug cartels and Chinese traffickers join forces to poach totoaba fish, their criminal methods threaten to destroy virtually all marine life in the region,” reads the film’s pitch.
The “Miracle Operation” was launched in 2015 to save the small silvery cetacean easily recognizable by the dark circles around its eyes and mouth.