Save Mexico's Vaquita: Plea at World Whale Assembly Mariette Le Roux - Phys.org | |
go to original October 27, 2016 |
Conservation groups call for more efforts to save vaquita (CCTV News)
Sometimes referred to as Mexico's "panda of the sea", there were a mere 59 known vaquitas by the end of last year, according to reports to the International Whaling Commission
The vaquita, a diminutive Mexican porpoise feared near-extinct, made a big splash at a world whaling meeting this week with pleas to arrest illegal fishing to prevent its extermination.
Sometimes referred to as Mexico's "panda of the sea", there were a mere 59 known vaquitas by the end of last year, according to reports to the International Whaling Commission (IWC).
Then in March, three were found dead in fishing nets.
"The situation of the vaquita is now in its critical phase," Justin Cooke of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) told delegates to the IWC's 66th meeting in Portoroz, Slovenia.
"The numbers have further declined from about 100 animals when we discussed it in this room two years ago, to less than 60 now.
"If the decline is not stopped then by the time we next discuss it... in two years' time, it will be already too late to save the species."
Read the rest at Phys.org
Related: Mexico Nabs 6 Fishing Boats in Endangered Porpoise Habitat (Associated Press)
Related: World Must Tackle the Biggest Killer of Whales – and It’s Not Whaling (Inter Press Service)
Related: A List of Endangered Animals in Mexico (studioD)
Related: Starfish Are Dying Out in the Pacific – and No-One Is Quite Sure Why (Independent)
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