The porpoise is likely to become extinct, biodiversity commission chief says.
Organized crime undermined the viability of the program to rescue the critically endangered vaquita marina porpoise, a senior environmental official said yesterday.
José Sarukhán Kermez, the coordinator of the National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity (Conabio), blamed the incursion of organized crime into the illegal totoaba swim bladder trade and “the scant interest of several governments” to protect the Gulf of California as factors that prevented rescue efforts from succeeding.
Consequently, the vaquita marina — of which as few as 12 are believed to remain — will “most likely become extinct,” Sarukhán told a press conference at Los Pinos, the official residence of the president.
