Three conservation groups have sued the U.S. Department of the Interior to force it into issuing sanctions against Mexico for its continued allowance of illegal totoaba fishing, which is threatens the critically endangered vaquita porpoise with extinction.
The Natural Resources Defense Council, the Center for Biological Diversity, and the Animal Welfare Institute filed suit on Tuesday, 14 December arguing an “unreasonable delay” in the U.S. government’s response to a 2014 petition to sanction Mexico under the Administrative Procedure Act. According to the petition, Mexico’s failure to take effective enforcement action against the totoaba trade undermines the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
“Despite Mexico’s enforcement promises, we’ve watched the vaquita population plummet over the past decade from 200, to 100, to 60, and now to only around 10,” Center for Biological Diversity International Program Director Sarah Uhlemann said. “We’ve tried advocacy, we’ve tried diplomacy, but the vaquita is out of time. We need economic pressure to force Mexico to finally wake up and stop this little porpoise’s extinction.”
The lawsuit, filed in the United States Court of International Trade, demands the U.S. Interior Department certify Mexico under a U.S. law called the Pelly Amendment, which would allow the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden to embargo the importation of wildlife products from Mexico, including shrimp and fish. The value of all seafood sent from Mexico to the U.S. in 2021 approached USD 600 million (EUR 563 million).
The CITES Secretariat has called for sanctions against Mexico, the groups said, and the U.S. has previously expanded vaquita-related Mexican seafood bans for shrimp and other seafood caught in the vaquita’s habitat.