By Richard Black Mexico’s twin crises – swine flu and the economy – may derail a plan to save the world’s most endangered cetacean. Only about 150 vaquita are left, and about 30 are dying each year through becoming entangled in fishing nets. The government has cut funding aimed at taking fishing boats out of service or adopting vaquita-friendly equipment. The vaquita, which is also the world’s smallest cetacean, is emblematic of the plight of other dolphins and porpoises around the world, say campaigners. As government delegates, scientists, whale-hunters and environmentalists discuss the large ocean-traversing cetaceans at the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting here, green group WWF’s new report, The Forgotten Whales, concludes that some of the leviathans’ smaller brethren are more at risk. Earlier this year the baiji or Yangtse River Dolphin was declared probably extinct, and the Critically Endangered vaquita (Phocoena sinus) – another species restricted to a small, specific habitat – will follow suit without swift action, conservationists believe. “The estimated mortality comes to more than 30 animals per year, and having a population that is only 150 – you can imagine that the population will not survive if nothing is done,” said Lorenzo Rojas-Bracho, Mexico’s IWC commissioner and the head of the national marine mammal research and conservation programme. “The situation is so critical, you can’t kill more than one vaquita per year of you want to save it for future generations.” …
Swine flu puts porpoise on brink
