Mexico-Based Startup Accused of Selling Endangered Fish Supplement

Environmental advocates fear the company could be used to launder wild totoaba, threatening the critically endangered vaquita porpoise.

Mexico-based startup, The Blue Formula, is accused of violating international trade law by selling a health supplement made from endangered totoaba fish.
The product, described as 'nature's best kept secret,' is a small sachet of powder containing collagen taken from the fish, designed to be mixed into a drink.
The company claims to operate '100%' sustainably by sourcing fish from Cygnus Ocean, a farm with a permit to breed totoaba, but the farm does not have a permit for commercial export of their farmed fish.
Environmental advocates fear the company and farm could be used as a front to launder wild totoaba, as there is no good enforcement of the traceability of totoaba in Mexico.
Gillnet fishing for wild totoaba, driven by the exorbitant price for totoaba bladders in China, is illegal and one of the leading killers of critically endangered vaquita porpoise.