Saving Seafood

Latest survey shows slight increase in critically endangered vaquita population

November 11, 2025 — Scientists surveying the Upper Gulf of California for the critically endangered vaquita porpoise have confirmed sightings of between 7 to 10 individuals and the birth of new calves, a slight increase from the 2024 survey, which marked the lowest results ever recorded.

Found only in the Northern Gulf of California off the coast of Mexico, the vaquita porpoise is among the planet’s most endangered species. The population has seen a steady decline since its first survey in 1997, when scientists estimated roughly 567 individuals. By 2024, that number had fallen to just eight – the lowest level ever documented – with no sightings of newly born calves.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

US government settles vaquita, totoaba suit with pledge to make decision on Mexico import ban

April 10, 2023 — The U.S. Department of the Interior has arrived at a settlement of a lawsuit demanding it certify Mexico as not adequately protecting the critically endangered totoaba and vaquita porpoise.

The lawsuit, which was filed in 2020 in the U.S. Court of International Trade by the Center for Biological Diversity, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Animal Welfare Institute, demands the U.S. government certify Mexico under a U.S. law called the Pelly Amendment, which would allow the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden to embargo the import of wildlife products from Mexico, including shrimp and fish. The U.S. imported around USD 745 million (EUR 687 million) of seafood from Mexico in 2022.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Latest surveys show vaquita porpoise population at less than 19 individuals

August 6, 2019 — A new survey published in Royal Society Open Science has dire news for the survival of the vaquita porpoise – a small porpoise that lives in an area of the Mexican coast in the Gulf of California.

Using passive acoustic survey devices – which detect the vaquita due to the species’ use of echolocating “clicks” – the report determined that fewer than 19 individual vaquitas remained as of autumn 2018. The acoustic surveys, which started in 2011, have shown a 99 percent decline in the detection rate of the animals.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Appeals court blocks another US gov’t effort to overcome Mexico gillnet import ban

November 30, 2018 — The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Wednesday shot down an effort by the US National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and other federal agencies to end a four-month-old ban on the import of Mexican shrimp and other seafood caught in the country with the use of gillnets.

The decision to reject a “stay of the order” request backs a US Court of International Trade (CIT) ruling, issued in July, that was sought by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Center for Biological Diversity and Animal Welfare Institute as part of an effort to protect the endangered vaquita porpoise in the northern Gulf of California from being driven into extinction by pressuring the Mexican government.

Widely decimated by the use of gillnets in pursuit of the totoaba — another endangered fish sought for its swim bladder due to black market demand in China — there are believed to be a little more than a dozen vaquita remaining.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News