[caption id="attachment_307105" align="aligncenter" width="370"] Unintended victims of illegal fishing operations in within Mexico’s Gulf of California, vaquitas are on the brink of extinction. Could the US government have done more to save them?[/caption]

Has the US government been failing to take advantage of an existing wildlife crime whistleblower program to fight against wildlife crime? Terra Verde host and Earth Island Journal [1] editor Maureen Nandini Mitra explores this subject, as well a new wildlife crime whistleblower bill [2] that’s making its way through Congress right now, with environmental journalist Richard Schiffman, and Stephen Kohn, a Washington, DC-based attorney and the executive director of the National Whistleblower Center.

[1] http://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/magazine/entry/missed-opportunity-vaquita-whistleblowers

[2] https://www.whistleblowers.org/campaigns/empower-global-wildlife-whistleblowers/