On March 10, Shanghai Customs successfully intercepted a batch of swim bladders at Pudong International Airport. After inspection, there are 122 maws in the box, worth tens of millions, all of which are totoaba maws in the Gulf of California, which belong to Appendix I species of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, in fact, the Shanghai port is not the first time that a case of totoaba smuggling in Jiawan has been seized... In the final analysis, it is still driven by interests, so that these criminals are desperate again and again, and let the totoaba swim on the edge of extinction...
<b>The flower gum is delicious, and the fish maw is wronged</b>
<b>Dried products of yellow-lipped fish maws</b>
The dried products of fish maw are called "flower glue" in the market, and flower glue is usually derived from totoaba (Sciaenidae). The efficacy of flower glue in the market is full of fancy, in fact, there is no practical basis, and we will expand on this later.
The country's most valuable flower gum comes from the totoaba family of yellow-lipped fish (Bahaba taipingensis), which is called "money glue", and the price is comparable to gold, but due to overfishing, the yellowlip fish resources have tended to dry up.
<b>Yellow-lipped fish glue (top) and Gulf of California totoaba glue (bottom</b>).
As a close relative of the yellow-lipped fish, the Gulf of California totoaba on the east coast of the Pacific Ocean is larger and similar in appearance to "money glue", so it is a substitute for it. Prices have since gone all the way up, and despite Mexico's ban on fishing for totoaba in the Gulf of California as early as 1975, greedy outlaws have reached for them.
<b>Catch totoabas in the Gulf of California</b>
According to data from a Mexican environmental protection organization, the price of one kilogram of California totoaba maw exported to Asia fluctuates in the range of 468 to 1871.9 euros, and due to the strict control of the Mexican authorities, the price of one kilogram can reach 56159 euros on the black market, which is also such a staggering "sky-high price" that has become the ultimate reason for the tragic slaughter of totoaba.
<b>It was thus eaten as endangered</b>
<b>Gulf of California totoaba</b>
The Gulf of California totoaba, also known as the Totoaba macdonaldi, is the only species in the totoaba family, the genus Totoaba, and endemic to Mexico, that can grow up to 2 meters long and weigh 100 kilograms.
Don't look at their huge size, the growth cycle is also extremely long.
<b>Gulf of California</b>
Adults live in the Gulf of California, migrating to the Colorado River Delta in April and May each year to spawn, where baby fish will live until they are 2 years old and then return to live in the Gulf of California, still needing about 5 years to reach sexual maturity.
So population growth is slow, and it takes at least 4.5-15 years for the population to double.
As early as the beginning of the last century, after the United States diverted the Colorado River, the fresh water in the spawning grounds and conservation areas of totoaba in the Gulf of California continued to decrease, the environment was changed, and the population was greatly reduced.
Now their "swim bladder" has been targeted by criminals, even if it is an endangered species, but it has not received the slightest pity.
<b>Bottom line: The ingredient of a swim bladder is protein</b>
<b>1. What is the role of fish maws? </b>
Answer: The vast majority of teleost fish have maws, the role of the swim bladder is diverse, its main role is to adjust the density of the body, floating and sinking in the water, in addition to assisting breathing, perceiving sound and vibration and sound and so on.
<b>2. Are maws really as nutritious as rumors? </b>
A: Fish maws generally contain smooth muscle, connective tissue, blood vessels, etc., and their main components are proteins, which are no different from general animal proteins. Like shark wings, it has been blown by rumors of health care that have been spread falsely into a universal medicine for kidney nourishment, blood nourishment, qi and appetizer, and even anti-aging and cancer prevention.
<b>3. What's so special about the totoaba maw in the Gulf of California? </b>
A: The Gulf of California totoaba, like many totoaba maws, has the characteristic of being able to send courtship signals that are similar to drumming, but this also allows intelligent but cruel humans to use underwater monitoring to catch them during the mating season.
<b>Resources:</b>
[1] Lercari D , Ernesto A. Chávez. Possible causes related to historic stock depletion of the totoaba, Totoaba macdonaldi (Perciformes: Sciaenidae), endemic to the Gulf of California[J]. Fisheries Research (Amsterdam), 2007, 86(2-3):0-142.
[2] Taylor B L , Rojas-Bracho L , Moore J , et al. Extinction is Imminent for Mexico\"s Endemic Porpoise Unless Fishery Bycatch is Eliminated[J]. Conservation Letters, 2016.
ZUO Lingren, DONG Lei. The pangolins that are disappearing are almost extinct in the country! Asia is in a hurry! Africa is anxious to !—— search for China's last pangolin[J]. China National Geographic, 2018.
Xu Liqun. The Death of the Grass Flower Sparrow[J]. Scientific Inquiry for Rural Adolescents, 2014.
Zhu Xiaofeng, Gao Chenghong, Yao Caiyuan, et al. Crisis and conservation countermeasures of knifefish resources in Yangtze River[J]. China Fishery Economics, 2009, 27(3):41-44.<b></b><b></b><b> If you have copyright questions, please contact</b> [email protected]<b>. </b>）