Abstract
Since the beginning of the twentieth century there are records of illegal shipments of Totoaba macdonaldi touchaba, a species of fish endemic to the Upper Gulf of California. Organised crime linked to fishers, who overexploit the totoaba as well as make modifications to the fish’s habitat, have decreased populations drastically. Unfortunately, the impact is not limited to this species; this activity has led to the vaquita (Phocoena sinus—a small species of dolphin) being on the verge of extinction since they are caught accidentally in the fishing nets. A national regulatory framework, protection and monitoring programs, inter-agency collaboration, and international cooperation have all been established, but even with all these measures, the green crime and associated corruption remains. It is necessary to rethink the totoaba’s protection strategy and redirect efforts towards the origin of the problem, informing and raising awareness mainly of consumers, but also of intermediaries, fishermen, authorities, and society in general.
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- 1.
Collaboration agreement for the attention and persecution of environmental crimes and environmental management, that the Attorney General of Mexico, the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, and the Attorney General’s Office of Environmental Protection signed, published in the Official Diary of the Federation (DOF) on 13 October 2004.
- 2.
Regarding this modus operandi there is a case documented on 22 May 2013 where PROFEPA seized a cargo of 898,660 dried sea cucumber, 78,676 dead sea horses, as well as around a thousand boxes of frozen and dried totoaba bladders. Their illegal removal from the country was ‘destined for international Asian trade’ (Harper 2013). The specimens of species and their by-products were found frozen and hidden in ‘cardboard boxes and nylon bags in an authorised cargo of corvinas and jellyfish, Badionatus sea cucumbers and shark fins’ (Harper 2013). Regarding the totoaba , ‘108 kilograms of dried stomach, 21 boxes of dried bladder and 955 boxes of frozen bladder were seized … [that] were found mixed with other fish species – corvine; a dried totoaba bladder can reach a weight of up to 500 g’ (Harper 2013).
- 3.
In police and government jargon ‘poner en baile’ or ‘pegar en baile’ means an act of corruption, generally bribery or extortion, in which sums of money or payments in kind are requested (jewellery, watches, vehicles, etc.) in exchange for being freed.
- 4.
‘The buyers are mainly from the Orient, or they seek representation for Asian descendants that live in the USA, who move to different areas of the Baja California coast where they deal in totoaba for astronomical sums of money which have allowed the fisherman to buy sophisticated fishing equipment and containers, facilitating the movement and the exploitation of this species. Some inhabitants and different public officials say that the product goes directly from the coast to China, or via the USA, and from San Diego and San Francisco coasts it is transported to oriental countries’.
- 5.
‘When getting in contact with fishing villages, such as San Felipe and Golfo de Santa Clara, I noticed that organised crime is a phenomenon. In these villages they have seen a quick enrichment of certain people from the group of fishermen that have luxury vehicles and cars like BMW, Audi and Hummer. These fishermen rely on special fishing equipment, boats, new trailers and strong engines of the best and most expensive brands. Currently, these well-off fishermen are generating the creation of fishing cooperatives, with which they are looking to improve their social image and become fishing representatives. … These well-off fishermen have high handed attitudes with the PROFEPA officials and the rest of the authorities, they are aggressive because they have money and they consider themselves as the nouveau riche. This sudden enrichment is related to totoaba maw exploitation …’.
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Alvarado Martínez, I., Martínez, E.R. (2018). Trafficking of Totoaba Maw. In: Arroyo-Quiroz, I., Wyatt, T. (eds) Green Crime in Mexico. Palgrave Studies in Green Criminology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75286-0_12
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