Mexico Intends to Weaken Vaquita Protection

Mexico is considering wholesale revisions to fishing regulations, originally promulgated in September 2020 to protect the vaquita porpoise and its habitat in the Upper Gulf of California, the species’ only home. The vaquita population has dwindled to 10 or fewer animals due to illegal fishing with gillnets, which entangle and kill vaquita. The 2020 regulations—were they to be fully implemented and enforced—would provide the vaquita a lifeline from extinction. The proposed amendments threaten to sever that lifeline.

The most substantive proposed change is an 85 percent reduction in the size of the Gillnet Prohibition Area (GPA) initially established in 2015. The GPA encompasses the vaquita refuge, which includes a Zero Tolerance Area (ZTA)—core vaquita habitat where fishing and vessel activity (with limited exceptions) is prohibited. Under the proposal, GPA areas outside the refuge would be eliminated, and the refuge itself would also shrink—losing areas where vaquita were seen as recently as 2015. In addition, the proposal includes a kilometer-wide transitway through the center of the ZTA to expedite vessels’ access to areas open to fishing, exposing vaquita to additional risk.

Mexico claims that it cannot adequately enforce many of the provisions in the 2020 regulations. Consequently, rather than increasing enforcement efforts, it believes that reducing the size of the area requiring enforcement will improve its ability to protect the vaquita. While Mexico has kept the ZTA relatively gillnet free in recent years, illegal fishing has continued elsewhere in the refuge with little restraint, raising concerns as to whether enforcement efforts will be any more focused or effective in a smaller GPA/refuge.

Fundamentally, the proposed amendments increase the likelihood of vaquita ending up in gillnets—essentially pounding a final nail into the species’ coffin.

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