China bladder trade sending porpoise to extinction

[Judi Lynn]

China bladder trade sending porpoise to extinction

By MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press | August 1, 2014 | Updated: August 1, 2014 5:05pm

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Gillnet fishing in the upper Sea of Cortez has pushed the vaquita marina, the world's smallest porpoise, to the brink of extinction, according to an environmental report published Friday which states fewer than 100 of them are believed left.

Despite nearly two decades of efforts by Mexico to save the vaquita, new studies using underwater listening devices found only half as many porpoises as were counted in 2012. Experts believe fewer than 25 of the remaining vaquitas are reproductively mature females.

If left unchecked, gillnet fishing and China's insatiable appetite for the swim bladder of the totoaba — another endangered fish hunted in the same area — may seal the fate of the tiny porpoise, according to the report from the International Committee for the Recovery of the Vaquita.

"If there is fishing for totoaba this September, the vaquita might disappear this year," said Omar Vidal of the World Wildlife Fund. "Totoaba nets are the best device to catch vaquitas."

The vaquita porpoise lives in just one place: the upper waters of the sea — also called the Gulf of California — between the Baja California Peninsula and mainland Mexico. They were discovered only in 1958, according to the World Wildlife Fund, and now are considered critically endangered.

More:
http://www.chron.com/news/science/article/China-bladder-trade-sending-porpoise-to-extinction-5663386.php

[NYC_SKP]

1. This should be a crime, and the gulf off-limits to international fishing.

There has to be a way to stop this.

[ladjf]

2. The human race is totally out of control. I consider the situation to be hopeless. nt

[glinda]

3. Humans are a failed species unfit to walk this planet.

[ladjf]

4. You know, we've only been on Earth for about 350,000 years. That's nothing in Evolution time.

If we exterminate ourselves within in the next 40 or 50 thousand years, we will go down in Earth History as one of the shortest lived
species ever to exists. Whales and turtles have been around of about 150,000,000. Now they are going extinct in about 50 more years.
We are wrecking life on this planet. How ungrateful we are for not cherishing the privilege of life on this beautiful Planet.

[glinda]

5. Try 10-20 years extermination.

[ladjf]

6. I don't think we could kill ourselves that quickly. On the other hand,

my 40 to 50 thousand years was a very optimistic estimate. What would likely happen is a sharp decline in population with a few million survivors scattered all over the World, eking out a stone age living.

[Nihil]

7. Is there *any* species that those fuckers aren't killing off for the sake of their sick appetite ...

... for the body parts of endangered animals?

The sooner that Ebola spreads around this festering planet the better.