Mexico has been urged by the international community to take immediate action to protect the critically endangered vaquita porpoise. The 78th meeting of the CITES Standing Committee, held in Geneva, saw representatives from 103 member countries approve resolutions calling for Mexico to implement a 2020 regulation banning gillnets in the entire Vaquita Marine Refuge.
The resolutions highlight concerns about the continued use of illegal gillnets in the vaquita's habitat, insufficient law enforcement against the illegal totoaba trade, and Mexico's failure to meet key goals of the Compliance Action Plan for the Upper Gulf of California, including the installation of geolocation systems on smaller vessels.
The CITES Standing Committee also urged Mexico to expand activities supporting the development and use of alternative and sustainable fishing gear, strengthen intelligence gathering and information analysis to identify criminal groups involved in the totoaba trade, and ensure that criminal proceedings are conducted in accordance with the law and result in favorable outcomes for the environment.
Mexico is required to submit a report on the outstanding goals of the Compliance Action Plan by November 2025, prior to the Standing Committee meeting in Uzbekistan, and a full report of all results in 2026, for the Parties to review.
Lorenzo Rojas-Bracho, representative of the IUCN's cetacean specialist group, expressed concerns about the transition to alternative fishing gear and the effective monitoring of smaller vessels within the entire vaquita distribution area, aspects crucial for the species' survival.
Zak Smith, Director of Global Biodiversity Conservation at NRDC, on behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), called for the CITES Standing Committee to consider a trade embargo against Mexico. He argued that despite decades of calls for action, the vaquita remains on the brink of extinction.
The Mexican delegation, led by Marina Robles, Undersecretary for Environmental Policy and Natural Resources at SEMARNAT, successfully included the United States specifically in the document as a country of transit in the illegal totoaba trade, despite the US representative's attempt to change the wording to "All transit countries."
The CITES Standing Committee urged the United States to strengthen information and intelligence gathering on individuals within its territory who facilitate the transit of illegal totoaba shipments through its territory, their modus operandi for receiving, storing, and exporting illegal goods, and to conduct investigations and intelligence-based operations, including information sharing with Mexican and Chinese authorities, in support of investigations to track the illegal trade chain.