The United States has begun implementing a ban on seafood imported from gill-net fisheries in the Upper Gulf of California, acting on a court order requested by environmentalists in a last-ditch bid to save the small Mexican porpoise known as the vaquita.  The move this month by the Department of Commerce and the Department of Customs and Border Protection follows a preliminary ban ordered on July 26 by Judge Gary Katzmann of the U.S. Court of International Trade in New York. Slated to remain in effect pending a final judgment, the ban applies to millions of dollars of seafood caught with gill nets in the habitat of the vaquita (Phocoena sinus)—some 4,000 square kilometers (1,500 sq. miles) of sea in the... [Log in to read more]