Sea Shepherd ship attacked in Mexico's Gulf of California
Source: Associated Press
Updated 7:04 pm CST, Friday, February 1, 2019
MEXICO CITY (AP) — The Sea Shepherd environmental group said Friday that one if its ships was attacked with rocks and partly set afire by a flotilla of about 20 fishing boats in Mexico's Gulf of California.
It was the second attack in a month in the upper Gulf, where Sea Shepherd is patrolling against illegal nets to help save the critically endangered vaquita marina porpoise. The patrols have drawn the ire of local fishermen.
The vaquita is nearing extinction due to gill nets set illegally to catch totoaba, a fish whose swim bladder commands astronomical prices because it is considered a delicacy in China.
Sea Shepherd published a video Friday showing a flotilla of fast, small fishing boats swarming around its larger vessel, the Farley Mowat.
Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/world/article/Sea-Shepherd-ship-attacked-in-Mexico-s-Gulf-of-13581791.php
= new reply since forum marked as read
A scientist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows a dried totoaba bladder at a news conference in 2013. Elliot Spagat/AP
Fish and Wildlife Service agents are finding that the bladders often make their way to China via California. They found their first illegal bladder in a car coming across the Mexican border in 2013 — an astute agent had heard of the trade and recognized the bladder.
Later that year, agents seized another fish bladder from under the floor mats of another car at the border. They let the driver go but followed him. Dean says when agents raided his house, the scene inside was crazy. No furniture — just bladders. Everywhere.
"There were totoaba swim bladders placed all throughout the house," Dean says. "Giant fans blowing to dry out the bladders." Altogether, the 214 bladders that agents found in that house were worth $3.6 million.
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/02/09/466185043/chinese-taste-for-fish-bladder-threatens-tiny-porpoise-in-mexico
Chinese creating such a market!!! 
Last edited Sat Feb 2, 2019, 04:19 PM - Edit history (1)
This is a truly urgent issue, and, though I'm not always a super-fan of some eco-warrior-type tactics, I'm 1000% behind them on this one.
Many good people have trying to make something happen for a long time (In Puerto Penasco, for instance, CEDO has also been doing very good work over the last few decades: http://cedo.org/en/vaquita-lecture-series-2019/), and supposedly the Mexican government has been on board, but the Mexican government's follow-through on enforcement has been, shall we say, lacking in energy and effectiveness. 
Empty words will not save the vaquita.
[wording correction to reflect my education by Duppers 
]
Last edited Sun Feb 3, 2019, 09:00 PM - Edit history (1)
. . . at least provided the willingness of the Powers that Be (as you said), in both the US and Mexico, to ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING. The problem has been known for decades; the source of the problem, and the solution, have also been known almost as long. Yet every year, there are fewer vaquitas.
