World’s Rarest Porpoise Is Dying to Feed a Black Market in Fish Bladders (extinct by 2018)

[Omaha Steve]

A new Greenpeace investigation links Mexico, the United States, and Hong Kong in the illegal wildlife trade killing off the vaquita.



Vaquitas will go extinct by 2018 without immediate action to save the species, say scientists. (Photo: NOAA)
May 27, 2015 By Emily J. Gertz

http://www.takepart.com/article/2015/05/27/mexico-hong-kong-illegal-wildlife-trade-driving-vaquita-porpoise-extinct?cmpid=tpdaily-eml-2015-05-27

Emily J. Gertz is TakePart's associate editor for environment and wildlife.

A wildlife black market stretching from Mexico’s Sea of Cortez to the streets of Hong Kong will drive the world’s most endangered porpoise to extinction unless it is shut down soon, according to a new report.

In the study, published on Wednesday, Greenpeace investigators said that vaquita porpoises are dying after being caught and drowned in illegal gill nets in the northern Gulf of California, the marine mammal’s only habitat.

The vaquita population has fallen from 200 porpoises in 2012 to 97 today, said Miguel Soto Treviño, the communications coordinator for Greenpeace Mexico.

The Mexican government banned fishing in vaquita habitat in April, but illegal fishing has surged in the region with rising demand in China for the bladder of a fish called the totoaba.

FULL story at link.

[arcane1]

1. Is it safe to assume these fish bladders are being used for some stupid bullshit?

It usually is.

[Nevernose]

2. It's traditional!

And from mystical China! Western medicine is corrupted by Big Pharma! Science can't explain everything!

I'm sure there's some woo bullshit that I'm missing...

[arcane1]

3. I looked it up just now. And, of course, there's something sex-related.

A bladder from a totoaba sells for as much as $645,000 in Asia. The organ is filled with a gas that helps the fish maintain buoyancy and, according to Chinese medicine, good for blood circulation and fertility.

http://qz.com/412764/the-vaquita-is-about-to-go-extinct-because-of-chinese-demand-for-fish-bladder-soup/

Surprise, surprise.

$645,000 freakin' dollars.

[Liberal_in_LA]

5. probably

[shenmue]

4. Stop this now

[Omaha Steve]

6. I agree