Center for Biological Diversity

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Endangered Earth

No. 1255, July 25, 2024

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World Heritage Committee: Time’s Almost Up for Vaquitas
This week the World Heritage Committee — part of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization — is again demanding urgent action to protect critically endangered vaquitas in Mexico’s Gulf of California. Only six to eight of these tiny porpoises remain on the planet, and they all face imminent extinction from entanglement in gillnets used for illegal fishing.
Vaquitas, who grow no more than 4.5 feet long, have expressive black borders around their eyes and a rounded mouth. They're shy and elusive — but that doesn't keep them out of fishing nets.
Despite a 2020 gillnet ban and some reduction in illegal gillnets within Mexico’s “zero-tolerance area,” these devastating nets are still widespread outside that area — pushing vaquitas even closer to extinction. If Mexico doesn’t enforce vaquita protections now , the committee says, the country’s vaquita habitat will stay on the list of World Heritage sites “in danger” — where it landed in 2019 after a petition by the Center for Biological Diversity and allies.
You can help save vaquitas: Tell Mexico's government to step up enforcement and permanently remove all gillnets in vaquitas’ home.


Thanks to a petition by the Center and allies, Washington state just committed to hunting reforms that reduce killings of cougars statewide, finally reversing years of overhunting these big cats.
Washington also rejected a proposal to downgrade gray wolves’ status from “endangered” to “sensitive” — which would’ve reduced penalties for poaching wolves, made it easier to permit wolf-killing, and allowed harmful forest practices near wolf dens.
“This is a big win for cougars, wolves, and all of us who love these magnificent animals,” said the Center’s Carnivore Conservation Director Collette Adkins.
Center supporters sent more than 30,000 comments backing our fights for Washington cougars and wolves. Thanks — you made a difference.
Now help our work for carnivores across the country with a gift to the Center’s Saving Life on Earth Fund .


Op-Ed: Extreme Heat Isn’t an Equal-Opportunity Killer
The record-breaking heat waves we’re enduring summer after summer are the leading weather-related killer, and some groups are at far greater risk than others. “Among older adults and Black Americans, the number of deaths from extreme heat is expected to triple by mid-century,” writes the Center’s Energy Justice Director Jean Su in a new article.
The best way to combat that is to stop producing and using fossil fuels, an effort the United States should lead. But vulnerable people need protection now , which is why the Center and allies have petitioned FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, to declare heat a major disaster so it can help resource-strapped communities.
Join us in asking FEMA to take that step.


Support Wildlife Crossings Before Another Red Wolf Dies
With fewer than 20 red wolves left in the wild, now five have been killed by vehicles in less than a year — all on a single ruinous road ripping through their last habitat: North Carolina’s Highway 64.
Last September a car struck beloved Airplane Ears, known for his floppy, sideways ears and for siring 11 pups in the largest remaining pack. This April we lost Muppet, son of Airplane Ears, to another strike on the highway.
And late last month another father wolf — known only as 2444M — was killed there too.
It's past time to protect red wolves from senseless vehicle strikes.
Tell the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to build wildlife crossings on Highway 64 to save this species and help many others.


Court Victory for Breathable Air and a Livable Climate
Responding to a lawsuit by the Center and allies, an appeals court has decided that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission must take a new look at potential air-pollution impacts from the Commonwealth liquefied natural gas project in Louisiana before it’s allowed to go forward. The decision is a boon for critically endangered marsh birds called eastern black rails, as well as for human communities nearby.
“FERC needs to recognize that the potential harms of this project to the region’s air, wetlands, wildlife and the local community greatly outweigh any purported benefits,” said Center attorney Jason Totoiu. “It’s time to put this project to rest for good.”


Help Us Win This Important Award
Great news: We’ve made it to round two of Charity Navigator’s Community Choice Awards, which celebrate the exceptional work of top-rated charities (like us).
Enough of you voted that we’re officially finalists. Thank you!
Now we’re even more motivated to win. Earning that honor will raise awareness of our crucial work to save life on Earth. But we still need your help.
If you haven’t voted for us yet, please, do it now .
And if you have, share the voting page with everyone you know on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and everywhere else.


Revelator: Beaver Believers
If people restore wetlands, will beavers follow? Journalist Juliet Grable joined a team in southwest Oregon’s Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument to try to find out.
Learn more in The Revelator . And if you don’t already, subscribe to the free weekly Revelator e-newsletter for more wildlife and conservation news.


That’s Wild: Sawfish Born With Pocket Protectors
Smalltooth sawfish are South Florida rays — critically endangered due to habitat loss and fishing-net entanglements — for whom the Center won more than 840,000 acres of critical habitat in 2009. While most fish species lay eggs outside their bodies to reproduce, smalltooth sawfish give birth to live young.
So baby sawfish develop in their mothers’ wombs, along with some siblings. How do those needle-sharp teeth on their saw-like facial appendages not do any damage? Well, they’re covered in a thick sheath that protects the siblings and mother from the saws (and is shed a few days after birth).
Scientists recently got their first close-up look at this built-in pocket protector. See pictures at ScienceNews and learn more about baby smalltooth sawfish from NOAA.
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Center for Biological Diversity
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