Readers React: Humanity can save the vaquita porpoise and still be richer than ever

To the editor: Many years ago while camping in Baja California Sur on the Sea of Cortez, I saw a group of fishermen who had caught sea turtles. Those turtles were placed in the back of a pickup truck, still alive, and carted off. It was one of the saddest things I had seen.

I spoke with a few of the locals there who were quite willing to accept this practice, no doubt seeing it as an income provider in a poverty-stricken society.

The ongoing story of the vaquitas brings this struggle up once more, only now the stakes are considerably greater. The drop in their numbers is staggering. The statement about having to weigh the cost of saving the species against the cost of its disappearance was hideous.

To lose yet another species on a planet saturated with military spending and obscene wealth indicts us all.

Jeffrey Eulberg, Reseda

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