Gloria bill, AB 1151, to Make It Illegal to Possess or Sell Seafood Caught in Gillnets, a Fishing Method Destructive to World’s Smallest Porpoise 
 
 SACRAMENTO, CA – California State Assemblymember Todd Gloria (D-San Diego) announced today the introduction of his new bill that would help save the last 30 vaquita porpoises in the world. The bill, AB 1151, would make it illegal to possess or sell fish or fish products from the northern Gulf of California caught with any kind of gillnet. 
 
 Gillnets, which are used to catch shrimp and fish, are the greatest threat to the vaquita species, the world’s smallest and most endangered porpoise. Like the seafood targeted by these nets, vaquita become entangled in the nets and then drown. 
 
 “California can send a clear message of solidarity to the Mexican and international scientists, communities, and conservationists trying to save the vaquita from dying in gillnets,” said Assemblymember Todd Gloria. “This bill helps ensure that Californians are not contributing to the vaquita’s extinction.” 
 
 The vaquita population has declined by a stunning 95 percent since 1990. In 1990, there were more than 700. The vaquita’s steep decline is solely attributable to the use of gillnets in their habitat, a 2,000 km² area in the northwest corner of the Gulf of California – an area roughly equal in size to Orange County, California. 
 
 “As one of the nearest neighbors and purchasers of fish products from the northern Gulf of California, it’s critical that California take a stand for vaquita,” said Zak Smith, senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Marine Mammal Protection Project. “There’s no time left for half-hearted efforts to save the ‘pandas of the sea.’ It is imperative that we remove all gillnets from vaquita habitat to halt the extinction of this beautiful, unique porpoise.” 
 
 “California will not stand idly by while harmful fishing practices push the world’s rarest dolphin to extinction. We can protect the vaquita by stopping the possession of fish products that threaten it,” said Kim Delfino, California program director for Defenders of Wildlife. “California banned the use and importation of shark fins to halt the decline in sharks years ago, and if Assemblymember Gloria’s bill becomes law, California will once again lead the way on protecting our ocean’s rare marine life.” 
 
 Mexico has temporarily banned the use of gillnets for the shrimp fishery and other fisheries in an effort to protect the vaquita. However, there is an exception to the ban that allows for the use of gillnets for the corvina fishery. 
 
 Unfortunately, an illegal fishery for a croaker fish called the totoaba (also endangered and also found only in the northern Gulf of California) uses the corvina fishery exception to the ban to continue to kill the exceptionally rare vaquita. Fishermen continue to flood the vaquita’s habitat with gillnets to catch totoaba in response to Asian demand for totoaba swim bladders, which are smuggled to Southeast Asia for use in traditional medicinal soups. 
 
 Assemblymember Gloria represents the 78th Assembly District of California and serves as an Assistant Majority Whip. Assemblymember Gloria’s official, high-resolution photo can be downloaded here. 
 
 The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 2 million members and online activists. Since 1970, our lawyers, scientists, and other environmental specialists have worked to protect the world's natural resources, public health, and the environment. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Bozeman, MT, and Beijing. Visit us at www.nrdc.org and follow us on Twitter @NRDC. 
 
 Defenders of Wildlife is dedicated to the protection of all native animals and plants in their natural communities. With more than 1.2 million members and activists, Defenders of Wildlife is a leading advocate for innovative solutions to safeguard our wildlife heritage for generations to come. For more information, visit www.defenders.org and follow us on Twitter @DefendersNews. ||||| Sea Shepherd’s campaign in defense of the highly endangered vaquita porpoise 
 
 Sea Shepherd Conservation Society’s Operation Milagro III (Operation Miracle) continues our conservation efforts for the endangered vaquita porpoise, a species on the brink of extinction. 
 
 Our ships, the M/V Sam Simon and M/V Farley Mowat will be patrolling and protecting the vaquita refuge to save this critically endangered marine mammal. ||||| A vaquita porpoise - a critically endangered species of porpoise - was found dead in the waters off Baja California on Sunday, according to Sea Shepherd 
 
 A vaquita porpoise - a critically endangered species of porpoise - was found dead in the waters off Baja California on Sunday, according to Sea Shepherd, the organization known for battling illegal fishing and poaching in the oceans. 
 
 The carcass was found by one of the Sea Shepherd's anti-poaching ships, the Farley Mowat, in the Gulf of California. The crew then notified Mexican authorities to retrieve the body. 
 
 The frozen carcass is in San Felipe, where it will be examined to determine its cause of death. 
 
 The discovery comes a week after the organization found another vaquita dead in the Bay. The body of the vaquita, believed to be a newborn, was found floating in the Gulf of California just south of San Felipe on Sunday, March 12. 
 
 More than half of the population has been lost in the last three years, according to the World Wildlife Fund. 
 
 Now, with only 30 vaquita porpoises left in the world, Rep. Todd Gloria (D-78th District) has introduced a bill in California to help save the rare sea mammal from extinction. The bill would make it illegal to possess or sell fish products caught in the northern Gulf of California with a gillnet. 
 
 More often than not, vaquitas get entangled in nets meant for a fish known as the totoaba, which inhabits the same territory. The vaquitas are unable to surface to breathe and drown as a result. 
 
 The gillnets have led to a 90 percent decline in the vaquitas' numbers over the last five years, according a study by an international committee of experts. 
 
 In 2016, 31 illegal fishing nets for the totoaba were pulled from the Gulf of California. 
 
 Mexico has temporarily banned the use of gillnets for fishing of shrimp and other sea creatures in an effort to protect the vaquita. 
 
 However, there is a loophole that allows for the use of gillnets for fishing of Gulf corvina, a practice used to capture the totoaba fish. 
 
 Considered "aquatic cocaine," the fishing for totoaba is highly lucrative. Sea Shepherd estimates the fish is worth $20,000 per kilo. ||||| “This breaks my heart. Wildlife conservation can be a tough job. What's so devastating about the vaquita is that it could go extinct with the majority of the world having no idea this beautiful animal even existed. But I refuse to give up hope. We'll fight on. ” 
 
 There is grim news for the world’s most endangered porpoise. A survey conducted last summer and just released last week estimates vaquita numbers are as low as 30 individuals. That’s half of what the vaquita population was just last year. And less than a third of its population in 2014. 
 
 Why are their numbers at an all-time low? Human activities, specifically bycatch - fishing nets that inadvertently catch and drown the porpoise. Vaquitas share waters with the much sought-after totoaba fish. The totoaba’s bladder is a highly prized delicacy in Asia and is illegally traded en route to China from Mexico and through the US. 
 
 The only way to save the vaquita from extinction is if the Mexican government bans all fisheries within vaquita habitat. Such a ban must be fully carried out by law enforcement. And economic alternatives must be found for fishing communities so they may have more sustainable livelihoods. 
 
 Other governments must also do their part. The US needs to immediately stop transborder shipments of totoaba products. China should end to the illegal transport and sale of totoaba products. 
 
 All three governments must take action immediately. 
 
 WWF is committed to working with the Mexican government and the international community to ensure a future of the vaquita as well as sustainable livelihoods for local communities. We are working to stop gillnet fishing and “ghost nets” within vaquita habitat in addition to finding new vaquita-safe fishing techniques. 
 
 Just a decade ago, the Chinese river dolphin was driven to extinction. Today we are on the brink of losing a second cetacean species. We cannot allow this to happen. ||||| Scientists warned in February there are only 30 remaining vaquita marina, the world's smallest porpoise, and they face extinction by 2022 Environmentalists said they have found the body of a baby vaquita marina porpoise, one of the last of its kind, washed up dead in northern Mexico. 
 
 The newborn was found with its umbilical cord still attached on a beach in the Gulf of California by US environmental group Sea Shepherd, which said it is working with Mexican authorities to determine what killed the animal. 
 
 Scientists warned in February that there are only 30 remaining vaquita, the world's smallest porpoise. They warned it faced extinction by 2022. 
 
 Mexico's environmental protection authority said the baby vaquita's corpse would be sent to a lab in San Francisco to be tested for toxic substances, viruses and bacteria. 
 
 Sea Shepherd said the most common cause of death for the vaquita is getting caught in illegal gillnets meant to catch another endangered species, a large fish called the totoaba. 
 
 Smugglers ship the totoaba's dried swim bladder to China, where it fetches tens of thousands of dollars and is eaten in soup. 
 
 "Under the stress of fighting for its life, a mother could have discharged the calf," said Sea Shepherd activist Oona Layolle in a statement. 
 
 A female vaquita gives birth to a calf approximately once every two years, the group said. 
 
 Explore further: Mexico scrambles to save world's smallest porpoise (Update) ||||| Chinese Taste For Fish Bladder Threatens Rare Porpoise In Mexico 
 
 Enlarge this image toggle caption Richard Herrmann/Minden Pictu via Corbis Richard Herrmann/Minden Pictu via Corbis 
 
 The international trade in exotic animal parts includes rhino horn, seahorses and bear gallbladders. But perhaps none is as strange as the swim bladder from a giant Mexican fish called the totoaba. 
 
 The totoaba can grow to the size of a football player. It lives only in the Gulf of California in Mexico, along with the world's rarest marine mammal — an endangered porpoise called the vaquita. 
 
 Now the new and lucrative bladder trade threatens to wipe out both animals. 
 
 "People in Asian cultures use the swim bladder in a soup called fish maw," explains Erin Dean at the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. It's also reputed to have some medicinal value — it's thought to boost fertility. 
 
 Dean says no one knows why the demand for it has skyrocketed recently. It could be that when a Chinese fish called a yellow croaker, which once supplied bladders, started dying out, people started turning to the Mexican totoaba to meet the demand for bladders. 
 
 Enlarge this image toggle caption Elliot Spagat/AP Elliot Spagat/AP 
 
 And the totoaba has one big bladder, which it inflates and deflates to control its flotation. When dried, it's about the size of a laptop computer — and it sells for big bucks. 
 
 "When one totoaba fish bladder goes for $10,000 in the Chinese market," says Dean, "law enforcement agencies kind of raise up their eyebrows and take note of this trade going on." 
 
 What investigators found is that Mexican fishermen are using huge nets, called gill nets, to catch totoaba. And those nets also accidentally snare and kill the vaquita porpoises. Their corpses get thrown away, while the totoaba bladders go to China. The whole business is a violation of both Mexican and international law, since the totoaba and the vaquita are listed by international treaty as endangered, so they're legally protected. 
 
 Fish and Wildlife Service agents are finding that the bladders often make their way to China via California. They found their first illegal bladder in a car coming across the Mexican border in 2013 — an astute agent had heard of the trade and recognized the bladder. 
 
 Later that year, agents seized another fish bladder from under the floor mats of another car at the border. They let the driver go but followed him. Dean says when agents raided his house, the scene inside was crazy. No furniture — just bladders. Everywhere. 
 
 "There were totoaba swim bladders placed all throughout the house," Dean says. "Giant fans blowing to dry out the bladders." Altogether, the 214 bladders that agents found in that house were worth $3.6 million. 
 
 Federal agents fear that with that kind of money at stake, the trade will get even bigger. "We absolutely have heard that cartels are involved in this trade," says Dean. "We've yet to nail that down." 
 
 Seven people have been prosecuted so far, she says. But fines and jail sentences issued so far have been relatively light. 
 
 Meanwhile, as more totoaba die for soup, more of the vaquita die with them. There are now only about 100 of these porpoises left on Earth, according Leigh Henry, a conservation policy adviser at the World Wildlife Fund. "It's the most endangered marine mammal," she says. "They are beautiful animals. They look like they have lipstick on and mascara." 
 
 The only place they're found is in the Gulf of California. Years ago, Mexico tried to protect the vaquita by putting large parts of its range off limits to fishing with gill nets. And the vaquita's numbers rebounded. Things were looking hopeful — until the totoaba trade took off. 
 
 Last month, this became an international issue. Government officials from the U.S., Mexico and China met in Geneva to talk about wildlife trade. It was the first time a lot of people had heard much about this new trade, says Laura Noguchi from the Fish and Wildlife Service, who was there. Mexican officials said China had a responsibility to track down bladder buyers. China said Mexico should crack down harder on illegal fishing. 
 
 Noguchi says the Chinese do appear to be taking the trade more seriously now. "They have looked at some of their dried seafood markets in Hong Kong," she says. "That's a hub apparently for the sale of this swim bladder." 
 
 But Chinese officials say they've yet to see much of a totoaba market in China. They also noted in a letter to officials who monitor wildlife trade under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species that it's hard to tell what's totoaba bladder and what might come from other, non-endangered fish. 
 
 Historically, fighting international wildlife trade takes a long time. And Leigh Henry of the WWF says that's especially true when it involves an animal that most people don't know about. "I want my kids to live in a world where vaquita continue to exist," she says. "My girls are 9 and 6. And they're probably two of the only people in the United States who know what a vaquita is. And they're concerned." 
 
 So is she. She says without an end to the trade, the vaquita could disappear by 2020.
– Not even military dolphins could save this vaquita. The carcass of one of the endangered porpoises, whose Spanish name translates to "little cow," was discovered floating near the Baja California shoreline Sunday in the latest blow to a rapidly diminishing population, NBC Los Angeles reports. The vaquita was found by the Farley Mowat ship, part of the Sea Shepherd group's conservation campaign for the marine creature. Mexican officials were called to pull the dead animal from the Gulf of California, and it's now frozen and awaiting a necropsy to figure out what caused its demise. Just last week, a newborn vaquita was found washed up on a beach in northern Mexico, per Phys.org. While finding two of any type of animal dead within a week may not seem significant, it is when there are so few left in existence: The World Wildlife Fund—which calls the "critically endangered" vaquita the "world's most rare marine mammal"—points to a 2017 survey that says about 30 are left, about half the number in 2016. The vaquita often die when they get caught up and drown in fishing nets meant for the totoaba, a highly coveted fish in China that shares the same exclusive living space in the Gulf of California. Rep. Tom Gloria is spearheading efforts in the Golden State to save the vaquita, recently introducing a bill to criminalize possessing or selling fish trapped in those waters using the special gill nets. (On the flipside, here's some positive animal news.)