INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
discreetly displayed in this shop in Guangzhou, China sell for up to $20,000.Half a world away, off the coast of Mexico, poachers battling
each other for this "cocaine of the sea" are using drug cartel-like tactics to get it -- pushing two species toward extinction and leaving
ordinary fishermen fighting to survive.The lucrative black market for totoaba swim bladders -- prized in Chinese traditional medicine for
their purported healing and beautifying properties -- have turned the Gulf of California into a battleground, criss-crossed by armed
poachers, Mexican navy vessels and environmental activists patrolling with pirate flags.The casualties of this war include not only the
critically endangered totoaba, but also the world's smallest porpoise, the vaquita marina -- of which just 30 remain, according to
(AFP)Mexican authorities say the vaquita has been virtually wiped out by totoaba fishing, because it gets stuck in the same kind of
net.Known as the "panda of the sea" for the distinctive black circles around its eyes, the porpoise has become a cause celebre for the likes
of Leonardo DiCaprio and Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim.Three years ago, the Mexican government declared a ban on fishing in a
1,300-square-kilometer (500-square-mile) area off the coast of San Felipe, a fishing community that depended on the industry for 70 percent
of its economy."They want to make San Felipe a ghost town," said Omar Solis, a shrimper who bought a catamaran and is now trying to reinvent
himself as a pleasure cruise operator for tourists.Solis, 42, warns other ex-fishermen will likely end up as totoaba poachers."They're
pushing us into it whether we want to or not
It means risking your life, but if you don't have any money, what else can you do" he said.Cartel crosshairsFlying a black flag with a white
skull, activists from the US environmental group Sea Shepherd patrol the waters off San Felipe night and day in a camouflaged ship, using
sonar and radar to find poaching boats and their nets.It can be a dangerous hunt: poachers have been known to open fire on Sea Shepherd
at Campo Serena fishing camp, in the Gulf of California (AFP)"They go to sea armed, and there are shootouts between rival groups," a Mexican
marine deployed to the zone told AFP.Since February, Sea Shepherd has carried armed soldiers and police aboard its ships, for the activists'
protection.Authorities say poachers filet the totoaba at sea, stash the swim bladders in hidden compartments and toss the bodies back into
Then they ship their haul in small quantities -- the same strategy used by drug cartels.Mexican authorities have begun using the same
tactics they use against cartels: tapping phones and following the money trail to pick apart the organization."It's highly likely" the
poachers are funded by drug cartels, said Joel Gonzalez, an official with Mexico's prosecutor for environmental crimes.Fishermen in San
corrupt networks and the same trafficking routes" for drugs and totoaba, said one, speaking on condition of anonymity.Silk-lined boxesIn the
faraway city of Guangzhou, in a shop on a busy street, a soft-spoken saleswoman shows an undercover AFP reporter her collection of dried
totoaba swim bladders, fetched from a store room upstairs and carefully laid out on a wooden table.The prices range from 20,000 yuan
($3,160) to 130,000 yuan ($20,500)."We can give you a display case with a ribbon and gold silk setting," she says.Totoaba is reputed to
rejuvenate the skin and heal a host of ailments, from arthritis pain to discomfort during pregnancy.But it has become so rare that most
customers just display it in their homes, "because it is a prized item," the saleswoman says.In all, her collection of eight dried totoaba
pieces is worth $80,000.'We have nothing' Back in San Felipe, the leader of the local fishermen, Sunshine Rodriguez, recently went on hunger
strike for 10 days to protest the government's blanket ban on fish nets -- even though only one kind of net is responsible for killing the
vaquita, according to the fishermen.Manuel Galindo, an oceanographer with 37 years' experience, agrees: he says only the thick nets used to
fish totoaba can kill the vaquita.The real reason the porpoise is dying out, he says, is that too many dams have been built on the Colorado
River, in the United States.That has reduced the flow of water it deposits into the Gulf of California, increasing the salinity of the
vaquita's waters, reducing the temperature and disrupting its food supply.The vaquita is adapted to a very specific environment, and those
conditions "don't exist anymore," says Galindo, a retired professor at the Autonomous University of Baja California.San Felipe's fishermen
are also struggling to survive in their new environment.About 200 of them have abandoned the town and set up an improvised camp on a remote
beach with no running water or electricity -- one of the only places they are now allowed to fish."We've had to flee all the way this place,
where we're cold, where we have nothing," says Maria de la Paz Alcantar, 60, cooking lunch for the fishermen as two little girls play in the
tangled nets on the sand.(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by TheIndianSubcontinent staff and is published from a
