Sentences with word «totoaba»

The illegal gill - net fishing of totoaba in the northern Gulf of California is causing the vaquita's perilous decline.

China has a vital role to play in saving the vaquita by aggressively rooting out the trafficking of totoaba in Hong Kong and mainland China.

A surge in illegal totoaba fishing, undermining of compensation schemes and resistance to the use of the smart fishing gear are all contributing to the vaquita's demise and create the need for a fisheries closure with stringent, year - round enforcement.

Postscript, Aug. 25, 3:10 p.m. A reader noted I failed to explain what drives the dmeand for totoaba bladder.

Kate O'Connell, a marine wildlife consultant with the Animal Welfare Institute, reinforced how the shark fin campaign provides a template for curbing demand for totoaba bladders:

Three vaquitas — representing about 5 % of the remaining population — were killed by totoaba fishermen this past March.

Unfortunately, vaquitas continue to die in totoaba nets despite the valiant efforts by law enforcement agencies, the Mexican Navy, and conservation groups to prevent illegal fishing since the gillnet ban came into effect in April 2015, immediately before the new acoustic and visual studies were launched.

* Correction, 4 April, 3:50 p.m.: This item has been updated to more clearly acknowledge a previous, independent analysis of ancient totoaba ear bones.

But the losses have mounted as the price for dried totoaba swim bladders, also called maw, has approached $ 4,000 a pound in Mexico — with the United States frequently the conduit for the contraband.

The biggest threat to the vaquita is the use of fishing nets that inadvertently catch and drown them, most notably gillnets used to illegally catch the critically endangered totoaba fish.

Hong Kong traders were more guarded, with only two shops displaying totoaba maw, but prices were found to be higher than on the mainland.

The alarming decline is largely down to the porpoises drowning in gill nets set to capture huge, bass - like fish called totoaba (Totoaba macdonaldi).

In May 2015, EIA conducted a survey of 23 fish maw retailers in Hong Kong and Guangzhou, China, as well as online research to ascertain the availability of illegal totoaba products on the market.

Earlier analyses of ancient totoaba ear bones show that juveniles once stayed in the estuary for the first several years of their lives.

Then, earlier this month, navy officers opened fire on two fishermen catching totoaba in the protected area after they fled in their panga and refused to stop, the paper La Voz de la Frontera reported.

Fortunately, just last month the United States and China made important commitments to reduce the impact of wildlife trafficking on totoaba.

Three vaquitas killed in gillnets were recovered during surveillance activities last spring and alarming quantities of totoaba gill nets have been found and removed in recent months.

«Despite all the best efforts, we are losing the battle to stop totoaba fishing and save the vaquita,» said Vidal.

Those results suggest that even if the Mexican government put a halt to today's profitable totoaba poaching (a swim bladder can go for $ 14,000 on the black market), the species would still struggle to survive in the gulf's radically altered environment.

VANCOUVER, CANADA — What's killing the giant totoaba of the Gulf of California?

The newly analyzed ancient totoaba otoliths show the species once spent its early years in brackish water, the lightly salty mix found where a river empties into the sea.

Elisabeth Malkin has kept up with the latest developments for The Times, including the rise in totoaba smuggling and Mexico's announcement last Friday that it will ban gillnets for two years across 5,000 square miles of the upper Gulf of California.

There are promising signs, including a set of meetings, described in March by China Daily, between Chinese and American officials pursuing ways to cooperate in stemming the trade in illicit wildlife products, including totoaba swim bladders (which often get to China through the United States).

Generally, traders were aware that totoaba sales are illegal, knew the fish are only found in Mexico and claimed that smuggling the contraband between Hong Kong and mainland China is easy with customs agencies not routinely inspecting fish maw consignments.

«But when totoaba season started, the lure of easy money was too great.

Fish nets set for the endangered Mexican totoaba (being held) are also snaring and killing the vaquita, a critically endangered porpoise.

Last month, the Environmental Investigation Agency released a new probe of Chinese markets for illicit foods and online sites and found totoaba maw was still very much on the menu.

It is crucial for the Chinese government to get ahead of the trafficking in totoaba buches.

Instead, the new acoustic study found that the decline has accelerated along with a resumption of illegal gillnet fishing for totoaba.

-- Both countries will increase cooperation and enforcement efforts to immediately halt the illegal fishing for and illegal trade in totoaba swim bladders;

In order to make the Gulf safe for the vaquita in the future, experts agree it's important to prevent illegal fishing of the also - endangered totoaba fish and to support alternative economies for the fishing community.

Cash flooded into a dizzying array of speculative assets, from property and copper to modern art to pu'er tea — and totoaba bladders.

«In addition to a fishing ban, Mexico, the United States, and China need to take urgent and coordinated action to stop the illegal fishing, trafficking and consumption of totoaba.»

Despite strong enforcement, illegal gillnets are still being set to catch an endangered fish known as totoaba, the swim bladders of which fetch large sums of money on Hong Kong and Chinese black markets.

But with the totoaba's swim bladder fetching tens of thousands of dollars on the black market in China, the fishing has continued apace.

Intense fishing that began in the 1940s for totoaba, a large fish whose swim bladder is highly prized in China, had driven both species onto the endangered list by the 1980s — the totoaba as the fishery's target and the vaquita as an unintended bycatch.

The totoaba's spawning grounds coincide closely with vaquita habitat, and fish poachers often snag porpoises in illicit nets.

The vaquitas, whose popular name translates as «little cow,» are dying at an accelerated rate because of an increase in the illegal gillnet fishery for the totoaba (Totoaba macdonaldi).

The most pressing existential threat to the vaquita is poaching — not of the porpoises themselves, but of a fish called the totoaba, whose bladders earn up to $ 20,000 apiece in China.

The totoaba's swim bladder is a highly - prized delicacy in Asia that follows an illegal trade route from Mexico, through the United States, to China.

Archaeologists studying totoaba bones from Rancho Punta Estrella — a site in Baja California occupied by humans 10,000 years ago and then again 5000 years ago — used a special bone from the fish's inner ear, called an otolith, to help them reconstruct the totoaba's early environment.

The totoaba is prized for its large bladder.

That restricted range has made this species, the world's smallest porpoise, particularly vulnerable to fishing boats wielding gill nets — many supplying illicit Asian markets for the swim bladder of an endangered fish, the totoaba.

The threats include accidental drowning in shrimp nets and in gillnets set illegally for an endangered giant croaker, the totoaba, which has a swim bladder that is a pricey black - market delicacy in China.

The totoaba trade has raised the stakes.

Swim bladder or maw from the totoaba is the main ingredient in soups and stews «reputed to aid fertility, improve circulation and eradicate skin conditions.»

In May, Greenpeace campaigners covered the floor of Hong Kong's international airport with dozens of fake plastic swim bladders from the totoaba, an endangered Mexican fish, to press the government to crack down on smuggling.

Such a ban will also make enforcement of the existing legal restrictions on fishing for totoaba, as gill nets could be found without going to sea.

Some totoaba fishermen appear to have hidden among those boats, or some corvina boats set out nets for totoaba as well.

Within days of the gill - netting ban going into force, the navy and PROFEPA [a federal agency] used a new high - speed Defender boat to arrest two people who were fishing in the protected area and were caught with a totoaba in their boat, the local paper El Sol de Toluca reported.