Mexico's shrimp fishermen caught up in race to save rare porpoise from totoaba bladder black market
SEAFOODNEWS.COM [The New York Times] by Elisabeth Malkin - September 16, 2014
It is a rare moment when scientists can point to an animal at the edge of extinction and predict when it might disappear forever. But it is happening here, under the golden waters of the desert-rimmed sea, where a small porpoise has almost vanished.
Nobody imagined that the end would approach so quickly. What changed was the appearance of a new threat to the snub-nosed porpoise known as the vaquita: organized crime.
The vaquita, a shy marine mammal, is simply collateral damage as poachers here sweep up another endangered species, a giant fish called the totoaba, to please consumers in China. The vaquitas become entangled and die in the nets set for totoaba...
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