The beautiful vaquita porpoise is the most endangered marine mammal in the world, according to some experts. While bottlenose dolphins have become the darlings of the marine mammal world, their close cousins, the vaquitas, are quietly vanishing off the planet. And illegal fishing is largely to blame. The vaquita routinely gets caught in gillnets where it slowly suffocates and dies. Its body is heartlessly dumped when the fishermen retrieve the shrimp and fish they were aiming for.
And the vaquita porpoise is not the only animal endangered by gill nets. Dolphins and sea turtles are particularly vulnerable to being caught in nets.
The Mexican government has issued a temporary ban on gillnet fishing, but they need to make this law permanent. Please join me in asking President of Mexico Enrique Peña Nieto to make the temporary ban on gill nets permanent.
Dear President Enrique Peña Nieto:
I was saddened to learn of the fate of the vaquita porpoise. It appears that these beautiful and peaceful animals are vanishing at an alarming rate. And the problem is gillnets. Gillnets are a marine ecology disaster. They don't just kill vaquitas. They also kill sea turtles and dolphins, to name the most frequent victims. Please outlaw gillnets on a permanent basis.
