CITES Approves Totoaba Trade in Major Blow to Imperiled Vaquita Porpoise
Center for Biological Diversity: LYON, France— The Standing Committee of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora voted 9-6 Thursday to permit Earth Ocean Farms, an aquaculture facility in Mexico, to engage in trade of captive-bred totoaba fish. This decision may seal the fate of the critically endangered vaquita porpoise, which becomes entangled in fishing nets used to catch totoaba for the totoaba bladder (or maw) trade.