Last summer a group of scientists tracking the decline of the world’s smallest porpoise, a shy creature called the vaquita, warned that time was running out. Fewer than 100 vaquitas were left, and without immediate action, the species would soon be extinct. Any solution, the experts said, must include a ban on the curtain-like gillnets that fishermen in the vaquita’s Gulf of California habitat use to catch shrimp and fish. When the vaquita swim into the nets, they become entangled and die. Now, Mexico’s government is preparing to implement an ambitious plan that calls for a two-year gillnet ban, compensation for the fishermen and full-scale enforcement across some 5,000 square miles [13,000 sq kms] of the northern Gulf to make the ban... [Log in to read more]