New Lawsuit Seeks More Import Bans on Mexico to Protect Endangered Vaquita

Conservation advocacy groups seek a court order compelling the Interior Department to take steps that could lead to a ban on some imports from Mexico. The Center for Biological Diversity and the Animal Welfare Institute filed suit June 11, asking the federal district court in Washington, D.C., to force Interior to respond to a 2014 petition to certify Mexico under the Pelly Amendment for its failure to take action to protect the vaquita porpoise and totoaba fish from illegal poaching.

Under the Pelly Amendment, if Interior finds “nationals of a foreign country, directly or indirectly, are engaging in trade or taking which diminishes the effectiveness of any international program for endangered or threatened species,” the agency can certify that to the president. The president is then authorized to direct Interior to prohibit “importation into the United States of any products from the offending country.”

The advocacy groups’ June 11 complaint says Mexico continues to not enforce its own 1975 ban on fishing for totoaba, prized in East Asia for medicinal use of its swim bladders, which can sell for $46,000 per kilogram. The totoaba are caught using gillnets, which entangle the vaquita and have partially led to its decline to only about 10 individuals, from about 60 remaining as recently as 2016. Both the vaquita and totoaba are listed in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

The two groups, along with the Natural Resources Defense Council, recently succeeded in forcing the National Marine Fisheries Service to ban imports from other fisheries that threaten the vaquita, in a lawsuit contested at the Court of International Trade (see 1807260039 and 2003050043).

The lawsuit says Interior’s failure to respond to the petition in the approximately six years since it was filed violates the Administrative Procedure Act. The two groups seek a court order compelling Interior to respond to the petition within 30 days. If Interior does certify Mexico under the Pelly Amendment, the president must notify Congress of a decision on an import ban within 60 days, and must give reasons to Congress for any decision not to prohibit importation of all fish or wildlife products.

Email ITTNews@warren-news.com for a copy of the complaint.