Mexican Navy: 1 injured in clash near vaquita reserve
By Mark Stevenson | AP March 29 at 5:48 PM
MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s president said Friday he regrets a confrontation between fishermen and marines trying to prevent the illegal fishing that has driven the vaquita porpoise to the brink of extinction.
The Mexican Navy said at least one fisherman was shot when a marine’s rifle accidentally discharged, and fishermen say two more people were slightly wounded in subsequent protests on Thursday.
It was the highest casualty toll yet in a long-running confrontation between environmentalists and fishermen angry over lapsed government support payments that were meant to compensate them for income they lost because of a total ban on gill nets.
“Yesterday there was unfortunately a confrontation, I very much regret it,” President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said, adding that he has been discussing the situation in the Gulf of California for several days with top officials.
Fishermen in the community of San Felipe set illegal nets to catch Totoaba fish, whose swim bladder is considered a delicacy in China. The nets also drown vaquitas, a small porpoise that lives only in the Gulf — also known as the Sea of Cortes — of which perhaps as few as 10 remain.
More:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/mexican-navy-1-injured-in-clash-near-vaquita-reserve/2019/03/29/5c48401c-526c-11e9-bdb7-44f948cc0605_story.html
Added to an ongoing thread in LBN:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142291751#post10