February 15, 2022 — The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has asked the Mexican government to provide environmental consultations regarding its efforts to protect the critically endangered vaquita.
U.S. Trade Representatives Katherine Tai said in a press release on Thursday, 10 February, the request is tied to making sure Mexico “lives up to” the environmental commitments laid out in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement.
February 11, 2022 — The U.S. Trade Representative’s Office filed the first environmental complaint against Mexico Thursday for failing to protect the critically endangered vaquita marina, the world’s smallest porpoise.
The office said it had asked for “environment consultations” with Mexico, the first such case it has filed under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada free trade pact. Consultations are the first step in the dispute resolution process under the trade agreement, which entered into force in 2020. If not resolved, it could eventually lead to trade sanctions.
Mexico’s government has largely abandoned attempts to enforce a fishing-free zone around an area where the last few vaquitas are believed to live. Nets set illegally for another fish, the totoaba, drown vaquitas.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said that “USTR is committed to protecting the environment and is requesting this consultation to ensure Mexico lives up to its USMCA environment commitments,” adding “We look forward to working with Mexico to address these issues.”
February 17, 2021 — From above, the Sea of Cortez is a picture of serenity: turquoise waters lapping against rose-tinted bluffs and soft sand beaches. But down below, beneath the water’s surface, a war is raging.
Each year, typically between late November and May, huge gillnets — some stretching more than 600 meters (2,000 feet), or the length of five and a half football fields — are dropped into the waters to catch totoaba (Totoaba macdonaldi). This critically endangered species is illegally fished for its prized swim bladders, which can fetch prices between $20,000 and $80,000 per kilo in China. While gillnets are highly effective at catching totoaba, they also catch just about everything else, including another critically endangered species: the vaquita (Phocoena sinus).
The vaquita is a bathtub-sized porpoise with silvery-gray skin and panda-like eyes that lives exclusively in a small section of the northern Gulf of California, close to the town of San Felipe in Baja California, Mexico. Right now, experts say there may only be about nine vaquitas left, despite the Mexican government spending more than $100 million to aid its recovery.
“The vaquita issue, in my opinion, is an example of epic, epic failure of conservation,” Andrea Crosta, executive director of Earth League International (ELI), an NGO that investigates wildlife crime, told Mongabay in an interview. “I don’t think rhinos and elephants combined have $100 million … and yet the vaquitas went from a few hundred individuals to … nobody knows how many now. Probably 12, 10, maybe less.”
But Crosta says it’s not the fishers deploying the gillnets that are the biggest threat to the vaquitas — it’s the people organizing the illegal trade of totoabas behind the scenes. They’re the ones placing the gillnets into the fishermen’s hands, he said.
June 11, 2020 — The Center for Biological Diversity and the Animal Welfare Institute have sued the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump in an effort to force it to implement sanctions against Mexico for its failures to protect the highly endangered vaquita porpoise.
The CBD and AWI said the sanctions are “long overdue,” accusing the U.S. Department of the Interior of failing to respond to a 2014 petition they filed under the Administrative Procedure Act requesting the United States “certify” Mexico under the U.S. Pelly Amendment for Mexico’s “ongoing failure to halt illegal fishing of and international trade in endangered totoaba fish.”
March 6, 2020 — US importers of Mexican shrimp and other seafood should soon be prepared to present documentation certifying that any of the products they are bringing over the border do not match a list of roughly five species caught in the upper Gulf of California using multiple gear types.
The US’ National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) announced Wednesday that it will ban the import of virtually all Mexican shrimp and other fish caught in that region of the country over concerns about the endangered vaquita porpoise. An effective date has not yet been set, but it is expected to be within a month and require importers to maintain a “certification of admissibility” that is signed by a Mexican government official establishing that the products being shipped are not from the upper Gulf of California’s:
November 21, 2019 — SEAFOOD NEWS — Campaigns against IUU fishing by both the industry and environmentalists continually run up against a problem: government enforcement.
Enforcement is not as much of an issue for rich countries with well-developed fisheries management systems, and strong enforcement histories.
In these cases, when IUU fishing happens, it can be successfully exposed, prosecuted and ended.
For example, in 2012, three Scottish fish factories and 27 skippers pleaded guilty and were fined more than £1 million for illegally harvesting mackerel in excess of EU quotas.
Carlos Rafael, the largest owner of scallop vessels in New Bedford, went to jail in 2017 over falsifying sales records to hide illegal landings.
Similar enforcement has happened in Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Japan, France and elsewhere.
But too often governments are not able to effectively enforce against IUU, either because of lack of will, lack of resources, or simply poor ability to manage fisheries.
Our story today about the Vaquita porpoise in Mexico is a case in point. Although Mexico is part of an international agreement to close fishing in the Northern Gulf of California, vessels were detected fishing in the closed zone this month.
The response of the UN CITES commission is to monitor the situation and take another look in 2020, a year from now.
There is another way we might approach IUU fishing, using supply chains to bypass governments that are ineffective or too weak to prevent the mixing of legal and illegal catch.
That is a blockchain system. Last week at the International Coldwater Prawn Forum in St. John’s, Dan McQuade, Marketing Director for Raw Seafoods, a scallop company operating out of Fall River, MA, presented the blockchain system his company developed in partnership with IBM.
It was one of the clearest examples of a blockchain that I had seen.
Block I represents each scallop bag processed onboard a boat. It is tagged with a printed label giving information on time and date, where caught, boat name, and other parameters as needed, even hold temperature.
Block 2 represents the receiving of this at the scallop packing plant. Scallops are graded, repacked for distribution either at foodservice or retail. Block 2 incorporates the link to Block 1, but details processing date, grade, size, license no., etc.
Block 3 represents the distributor, in this illustration, Santa Monica Seafoods. This tag includes the date received, location, size, and date shipped to their customer.
Block 4 represents the restaurant, which includes date received, size, sell-by date if any, and various consumer marketing materials.
By scanning a QR code, the restaurant customer (or any participant in the supply chain) can bring up all the connected information at each step in the process. The blockchain is in effect a guarantee that the original raw, untreated scallop, was never mixed with treated or adulterated scallops during its passage through the supply chain.
The technology of the blockchain involves public and private key cryptography, which makes it impossible to alter any of the blocks in the chain, once they are registered.
Raw Seafoods is promoting this as a marketing strategy with IBM to increase customer trust and satisfaction with their all-natural scallops.
But imagine a similar system applied to an area with significant IUU fishing, such as the upper Gulf of California.
In this case, fishing co-ops would be the originators of the first block, detailing product, date caught, and location. Processors and receivers would be the second block, detailing date received, product, pack, ship date. Importers to the US would be the 3rd block, again showing date received, customs data if needed, size, count, pack etc. The buyer, whether a retail or foodservice user of shrimp would be the 4th block, registering the product into their system.
The cost of this would include computers, printers, bar code readers, the cloud computing services, and programming necessary to make it work. But once in place, it is scalable at a remarkably low cost. The transaction cost for the entire supply chain could likely be reduced to one or two cents per lb.
Obviously, the system relies on each party putting accurate information into their block. However, because the record is permanent and instantly traceable, it lends itself to low-cost audits as needed. For example, if the fishing co-op itself were suspected of laundering illegal catch, data controls like GPS location and date could be added, to make this more difficult.
When IUU fish or shrimp is comingled with legal product, it becomes infinitely harder to track.
The benefit to fighting IUU fishing is that the blockchain tag could become a buying or importing requirement into the US. This would not eliminate IUU fishing going to underground or other markets, but it would allow non-government entities to provide the resources to control their own supply chain requirements.
Implementation of a system like this in an area with high IUU fishing would not depend on government enforcement action but instead would use the blockchain technology to validate the product from its point of harvest right through to its point of consumption.
This would allow buyers to actually avoid purchasing fish or shrimp that had co-mingled IUU product.
Enforcement to require only legal product, like with toothfish, for example, can be quite successful at reducing and eliminating IUU fishing. With toothfish, it took years of concerted action by both the legal toothfish industry, governments in the fishing nations, a UN port state agreement and backlisting of IUU vessels, and US laws regulating imports of toothfish. There simply is not the money or will in the international community to replicate this wherever IUU fishing is taking place.
Investment in a blockchain designed to reduce or eliminate IUU fishing from a regional hot spot could be a far less costly technological solution that does not depend on the enforcement budget of the governments involved.
However, it would depend on the commitment of the legal fishing parties at all levels of the supply chain. Unless the harvesters at the first level buy into the system, it will not work. But here, the provision of incentives would be far less costly than a broken enforcement system.
As these chains begin to be implemented for marketing purposes, it may be worthwhile to explore what a real IUU focused blockchain would look like as an alternative to the painstaking diplomatic process of governments convincing each other that they have to spend the resources and act.
This story was originally published on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.
March 18, 2019 — The following was released by the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership:
Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) is pleased to announce eight US importers of Mexican seafood—Aquastar, Artisan Catch (Orca Foods LLC), Del Pacifico, Inland Seafood, Meridian Products, Ocean Garden Products, Santa Monica Seafood, and Seattle Fish Company—have joined together to donate $12,000 to VaquitaCPR to fund removal of illegal fishing gear from the upper Gulf of California.
All eight companies participate in a Mexican Seafood Supply Chain Roundtable (SR) facilitated by SFP for managing ongoing sustainability improvement efforts.
The vaquita porpoise in the upper Gulf of California is critically endangered. The most recent population estimate (2018) indicates, at most, only 22 individuals. Though gillnets were banned from the upper Gulf of California throughout the vaquita’s native range in 2017, illegal use of gillnets by totoaba poachers and shrimp fishermen has continued and is threatening the existence of the vaquita.
“Unless this decline can be stopped by eliminating mortality in illegal gillnets, the vaquita will be extinct in a few years,” said the authors of a 2017 report from the 10th meeting of the Comité Internacional para la Recuperación de la Vaquita.
Through VaquitaCPR, conservation organizations such as Museo de la Ballena and the World Wildlife Fund are working with the Mexican Ministry of Environment and Mexican Navy as well as local fishermen to remove the illegal gillnets from the water on a continuing basis. This gear removal program is critical to the survival of the remaining vaquita.
“The seafood community has a long history of supporting the environmental and social needs of our community. None of these needs have been more important than the conservation, protection, and recovery needs of the vaquita porpoise,” said Lance Leonard, President/CEO of Ocean Garden Products, Inc. “The industry stands united in working with government, NGOs, and environmental groups to identify ways to save this unique mammal. We support the activity of VaquitaCPR and hope to bring attention to the cause with our customers and consumers.”
These companies, along with a number of other Mexican Seafood SR participants, have also sent a letter of support for alternative gear development to the Mexican government and upper Gulf of California shrimp fishermen. In this letter, they request that the Mexican government improve enforcement of the gillnet ban, but also expedite the processes necessary to develop and approve a viable alternative gear for small-scale shrimp fishermen.
“We would like to further express our willingness to collaborate in this important effort through the purchase, distribution, and marketing of the shrimp captures resulting from the adoption of fishing gears other than gillnets and or entanglement nets, which do not represent risk of bycatch to the vaquita marina,” participants wrote in the letter.
The importers are pledging future support to develop a market in the U.S. for “vaquita-safe” shrimp, once it becomes available. The letter was sent to the Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development, Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources, National Commissioner of Aquaculture and Fisheries, and the National Commissioner of Natural Protected Areas, as well as shrimp producer cooperatives in the upper Gulf region.
According to Megan Westmeyer, SFP Senior Improvements and Strategy Manager, “When the permanent gillnet ban went into effect without a viable alternative gear for the artisanal shrimp fishery, the supply chain lost the ability to use its purchasing power to affect change. Fortunately, these suppliers are determined to see that the upper Gulf of California can be home to both the vaquita porpoise and a sustainable artisanal shrimp fishery, and are taking action to ensure this vision becomes reality.”
October 24, 2018 — A federal court has upheld a ruling from July that banned seafood imports from Mexico harvested by a drift gillnet.
The decision by the U.S. Court of International Trade on Monday, 22 October came after Trump administration officials appealed Judge Gary S. Katzman’s temporary injunction against the practice. Conservation groups sued the administration seeking a ban in an attempt to save the vaquita, a small porpoise on the brink of extinction.
The porpoise lives in the Gulf of California and estimates put the species population at around a dozen. However, roughly half the stock dies each year in encounters with gillnets. The Natural Resources Defense Council, the Animal Welfare Institute, and the Center for Biological Diversity filed the lawsuit in March and claimed the acceptance of Mexican seafood caught by those nets violated the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
Read the full story at Seafood Source
July 31, 2018 — Responding to a lawsuit filed by conservation groups, the U.S. Court of International Trade has ordered the U.S. Government to ban seafood imports from Mexico caught with gillnets that kill the critically endangered vaquita porpoise.
As few as 15 vaquita remain, and almost half the population drowns in fishing gillnets each year. Without immediate additional protection, the porpoise could be extinct by 2021.
This is the life line the vaquita desperately needs, said Giulia Good Stefani, staff attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, who argued the case before the Court.
The ruling follows a lawsuit filed in March by the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Animal Welfare Institute and the Center for Biological Diversity, and it affirms Congress’ mandate under the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act that the United States protect not just domestic marine mammals, but also foreign whales, dolphins, and porpoises.
Read the full story at The Maritime Executive
April 3, 2018 — The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has published the first list of foreign fisheries, detailing the risks that commercial fishing around the world pose to marine mammals.
“The [List of Foreign Fisheries] is an important milestone because it provides the global community a view into the marine mammal bycatch levels of commercially relevant fisheries,” according to a statement published on the NOAA Fisheries website.
“In addition, it offers us a better understanding of the impacts of marine mammal bycatch, an improvement of tools and scientific approaches to mitigating those impacts, and establishes a new level of international cooperation in achieving these objectives,” the statement says.
The register is a step toward meeting specific requirements in the Marine Mammal Protection Act on the sources of fish imported into the U.S. It includes nearly 4,000 fisheries across some 135 countries. These fisheries have until 2022 to demonstrate that the methods they use to catch fish, as well as other marine animals such as coral, crabs, lobsters and shellfish, either aren’t much of a danger to marine mammals, or they employ comparable methods and mitigation measures to similar operations in the United States.
Fishing nets can exact a high toll on animals that fishers don’t intend to catch. Nets themselves can trap dolphins, porpoises, seals and sea lions as bycatch. In Mexico, a fishery targeting the totoaba for its swim bladders that fetch high prices in Asian markets has decimated the tiny porpoise known as the vaquita (Phocoena sinus). Perhaps as few as 12 remain in the wild.
The lines from traps, pots and nets can also ensnare even the largest animals in the ocean. Recent research has shown that almost every one of the estimated remaining 451 North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) either is toting errant fishing equipment around or it bears the scars of entanglements with gear. These ropes can cause injuries to right whales and other animals that can lead to infection or death. And towing pieces of gear that can be longer than the whale’s body causes what scientists call “parasitic” drag that can interfere with the ability to find food.
Read the full story at Mongabay