USMCA Council to Investigate Mexico's Failure to Protect the ...

For Immediate Release, June 27, 2024

MONTREAL— After a two-year delay, the Council of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement finally voted today to investigate Mexico’s failure to protect its critically endangered and endemic vaquita porpoise. Mexico has not enforced its own fishing and wildlife trade laws, and that failure is causing the near-extinction of the vaquita.

Vaquita are killed in illegal fishing nets set in the Upper Gulf of California to catch shrimp and a variety of fish species, including the totoaba, which is coveted for its swim bladder in China. According to recent surveys, as few as eight vaquita may exist in the survey area; a precipitous decline from 570 in 1997.

The USMCA Commission for Environmental Cooperation’s Secretariat has up to four months to create a comprehensive “factual record” — an investigative report including technical, scientific and legal information addressing Mexico’s enforcement efforts to stop illegal gillnet use imperiling the vaquita. The record, when completed, will have to contend with ample evidence of ongoing illegal fishing in the vaquita’s habitat.

The USMCA is a trade agreement between the three countries that took effect in 2020 to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement. If the environmental commission determines that Mexico has failed to properly enforce the law, the Environment Committee can provide recommendations to the council on whether the matter raised in the factual record could benefit from cooperative activities.

“Mexico needs to face accountability from the international community to finally spur urgent action to save the vaquita,” said Alejandro Olivera, a senior scientist and Mexico representative at the Center for Biological Diversity. “These porpoises are still suffering from illegal and deadly gillnets in their habitat, and Mexico has been looking the other way for years as vaquitas spiral toward extinction. With the three-party trade agreement in place, Mexican authorities will have to comply or face consequences.”

Scientists state that vaquita recovery requires effective protection from gillnets throughout the species’ recent range to enable the animals to re-occupy at least a small area known as the Vaquita Refuge. A recent survey found the number of vaquita observed in May was between six and eight, compared to the eight to 13 vaquita seen in the 2023 survey. Unlike last year, no vaquita calves were observed, although one healthy yearling was spotted.

“As it is possible that only six to eight vaquita are left on the planet, the CEC must act urgently to complete the factual record so as to hopefully compel Mexico to finally enforce its fishing laws to save this critically endangered porpoise,” said DJ Schubert, senior wildlife biologist with the Animal Welfare Institute. “Without immediate and meaningful enforcement, the vaquita will join the growing list of species that have gone extinct due to human greed, ignorance, incompetence, and inaction.”

In 2021, the Center for Biological Diversity, Animal Welfare Institute, Natural Resources Defense Council, and Environmental Investigation Agency submitted evidence to the CEC’s Secretariat that Mexico is failing to protect the vaquita, causing the population to decline precipitously.

In response, the Secretariat identified that “central issues remain unresolved in relation to the effective protection and conservation of the vaquita porpoise (Phocoena sinus) and the totoaba (Cynoscion macdonaldi) in the Upper Gulf of California.” Consequently, in 2022 the Secretariat recommended the preparation of a factual record, which the Council should have voted on within 60 working days. Instead, it waited more than two years. The Council voted unanimously to support the development of a factual record.

“The Council’s delay in voting on whether to prepare a factual record has jeopardized the vaquita’s survival,” said Zak Smith, senior attorney and director of global biodiversity conservation at NRDC. “The vaquita is on the edge of extinction and the shortcomings of USMCA processes are part of that history. Urgent action was necessary two years ago and is still necessary today if the USMCA environmental provisions are going to meaningfully help conserve the vaquita.”

In February 2022, in response to a request from the same animal welfare and conservation groups, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai initiated environmental consultations with the government of Mexico under the USMCA. These consultations specifically address Mexico’s USMCA obligations related to the protection of the critically endangered vaquita porpoise, the prevention of illegal fishing, and the trafficking of totoaba fish. This is the first step in the USMCA’s formal enforcement process and could eventually result in trade sanctions under the trade pact.

“The illegal fishing and trading of totoaba maws for the predominantly Chinese market has led to decimation of the vaquita population, driving them rapidly towards extinction. The Mexican government must take immediate and robust enforcement action to stop the illegal fishing and prevent the transnational totoaba trade to allow the vaquita population to recover,” said Sarah Dolman, senior ocean campaigner at the Environmental Investigation Agency.

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.7 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.

The Animal Welfare Institute is a nonprofit charitable organization founded in 1951 and dedicated to reducing animal suffering caused by people. AWI engages policymakers, scientists, industry, and the public to achieve better treatment of animals everywhere: in agriculture, in commerce, in our communities, in research, and in the wild. Follow us on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and Instagram for updates and other important animal protection news.

The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) is an international campaigning organization committed to investigating and exposing environmental crime and campaigning to protect endangered species and the natural world. Visit us at www.eia-international.org and follow us on Twitter @EIA_News.

NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 3 million members and online activists. Established in 1970, NRDC uses science, policy, law and people power to confront the climate crisis, protect public health and safeguard nature. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Beijing and Delhi (an office of NRDC India Pvt. Ltd).