Two Mexican environmental organizations filed a petition on Thursday under the new North American trade agreement for the protection of endangered sea turtles after what it called a failure by the Mexican government to prevent their deaths.
Pacific loggerhead sea turtles migrate from Japan to the warm waters off the coast of Mexico and the United States, but often die after they become entangled in fishing nets, according to the Center for Biological Diversity and the Mexican Center for Environmental Law (CEMDA), the groups that filed the petition under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
U.S. President-elect Joe Biden is expected to take a harder line enforcing environmental and labor measures when he takes over from Donald Trump on Jan. 20.
A spokesman for Mexico's economy minister did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Under USMCA, which replaced the 26-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement this year, member countries are obligated to more strictly enforce their environmental laws, including those protecting endangered species.
At least 889 loggerhead turtles were found dead on the beaches of Baja California Sur between 2017 and 2019, according to the groups, citing government data.
The petition to the international Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), a regional panel that carries new weight under the USMCA, blasts Mexico.
"Under the USMCA agreement, Mexican officials have a legal obligation to stop this carnage," said scientist Alejandro Olivera of the Center for Biological Diversity.
A lack of government protection for loggerheads, the largest species of hard-shelled turtles, could risk their extinction and bring a tragic end to their millions of years of migration to Mexican waters, Olivera said in a news release.
Companies in Mexico are bracing themselves for the expected shift under Biden to a more sustained environmental and labor focus.
"They are going to be observing more closely the compliance under USMCA in labor and environmental matters," Luis Aguirre, president of Mexico's assembly plant association, said this week.
(Reporting by Cassandra Garrison; Additional reporting by Sharay Angulo; Editing by Howard Goller)
