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Chinese appetite for exotic food is threatening the vaquita, the world's smallest porpoise, according to an environmental report released on Friday.
Gillnet fishing in the upper Sea of Cortez - also called the Gulf of California - has pushed the vaquita to the brink of extinction, according to the International Committee for the Recovery of the Vaquita, which says fewer than 100 of them are believed left.
If left unchecked, gillnet fishing and China's insatiable appetite for the swim bladder of the totoaba - an endangered fish hunted in the same area - may seal the fate of the tiny porpoise, according to the report.
Despite nearly two decades of efforts by Mexico to save the vaquita, new studies using underwater listening devices found only half as many as were counted in 2012.
Experts believe fewer than 25 of the remaining vaquitas are reproductively mature females.

"If there is fishing for totoaba this September, the vaquita might disappear this year," said Omar Vidal, of the conservation group WWF.
"Totoaba nets are the best device to catch vaquitas."
The vaquita porpoise lives in just one place: the upper waters of the sea between the Baja California peninsula and mainland Mexico. They were discovered only in 1958, according to WWF, and now are considered critically endangered.
Fishery restrictions implemented in the Colorado River delta have failed to protect the species, in part because of illegal gillnet fishing for totoaba, a huge, heavy fish whose swim bladder is prized by chefs in China, according to the vaquita recovery committee, which is made up of international experts convened by the Mexican government.
The number of vaquitas counted has dropped steadily since around 2010, when Mexican authorities also noticed an uptick in illegal fishing for totoaba, which is similar to the Chinese bahaba that has been fished almost out of existence.
The bladder of the totoaba is used by Chinese chefs to make soups and other dishes. According to the Smithsonian Institution's website, one totoaba bladder can attract a US$5,000 payoff in the United States, and more than US$10,000 in Asia.
"It's aquatic cocaine," said Jay Barlow, a marine-mammal expert at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "With two days of fishing, you can buy a new pickup truck."
Last year alone, Mexican regulators seized illegal totoaba bladders worth an estimated US$2.25 million.
The committee report said the US must play a role, noting that "thousands of swim bladders are dried and smuggled out of Mexico, often through the United States. The remainder of the fish is left to rot on the beach.
"The governments of the United States and China must help Mexico eliminate the illegal trade in totoaba products," the report continued.


Chinese quest for rare fish bladder may doom small porpoise

A dead porpoise

Drying totoaba bladders.

News

World

Chinese appetite for exotic food is threatening the vaquita, the world's smallest porpoise, according to an environmental report released on Friday.
