Library:On Borrowed Time The ongoing illegal totoaba trade driving the critically endangered vaquita to extinction (report)
On Borrowed Time The ongoing illegal totoaba trade driving the critically endangered vaquita to extinction is a report the Environmental Investigation Agency published in February 2024 .It discusses the illegal trade of totoaba fish maws and its impact on the critically endangered vaquita porpoise:
- The illegal trade in totoaba maws is driving the vaquita to extinction. The vaquita is a small porpoise that lives only in the Gulf of California, Mexico. It is the most endangered marine mammal in the world, with only about 10 individuals left. The main threat to the vaquita is entanglement in gillnets set to catch totoaba, a large fish whose swim bladder or maw is highly valued in China and other Asian markets.
- The online market for totoaba maws is active and increasing. EIA’s investigation found that totoaba maws are openly offered for sale on Facebook and WeChat, especially in China and Malaysia. The number and volume of totoaba maws advertised on WeChat increased dramatically in 2023, indicating that wildlife traffickers have resumed business as usual after the COVID-19 pandemic. EIA also discovered new markets for other body parts of totoaba, such as scales and gills, which are claimed to have medicinal properties.
- The enforcement efforts to combat the illegal totoaba trade are insufficient and declining. EIA’s records show that the number of totoaba seizures has significantly reduced since 2020, particularly in Mexico and Hong Kong, where most of the trade occurs. Despite the CITES recommendations and actions to suspend trade with Mexico and require a compliance action plan, Mexico has failed to effectively prevent illegal fishing and trade in totoaba and protect the vaquita. Other countries involved in the transnational trade, such as China, the US, Thailand and Vietnam, also need to increase their coordinated, intelligence-led investigations and prosecutions to dismantle the criminal networks behind the totoaba trade.
- The fish maw trade has wider impacts on other marine species and ecosystems. The global demand for fish maws, especially from croaker species, has intensified in recent decades and expanded into new regions. This trade poses a threat to the target croaker species, as well as to other vulnerable and endangered marine megafauna, such as cetaceans, sharks and turtles, that are incidentally caught in the same fisheries. There is an urgent need to address this issue and regulate the trade in fish maws through national laws and international conventions.