Monday, June 10, 2013

Mexican Government takes action to save the World's rarest Marine Mammal

Vaquita or Gulf of California Harbor porpoise (Phocoena sinus) caught in fishing nets, Baja California, Mexico.
A vaquita caught in a shrimp net

Recently, Mexico has taken an important step towards protecting the vaquita, a species of porpoise that is seriously threatened with extinction. The new regulation passed is known as an official norm, which was made possible by over 38,000 people from 127  countries signing a petition launched by the World Wildlife Fund. This new norm will make it so a kind of fishing net originally used for catching shrimp ( that often catches unlucky vaquitas) will be gradually substituted for nets that are safer for marine Mammals. This is a step forward for the vaquita, and perhaps all of conservation as well. Read more here.



Source: World Wildlife Fund international Photo: National Geographic