DiCaprio getting under Mexican president’s skin on ‘save-vaquita’?

Leonardo DiCaprio couldn’t stop the Titanic from sinking. But maybe he can save the vaquita from extinction.

As CNN reports, “The actor and activist used Twitter and Instagram this week to get his millions of followers to sign a petition asking Mexico’s President to take immediate action to protect the endangered vaquita porpoise, native to that country’s Gulf of California.”

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto got the memo.

On Thursday night, he “fired off a series of tweets —in English — defending his government’s efforts to save the vaquita.”

Peña Nieto tweeted seven times on the subject.

“Mexico has focused all its efforts to prevent the extinction of this species,” he said in one.

Upworthy added: “In 2015, Mexico implemented a two-year gill net fishing ban. But it wasn’t properly enforced, advocates argued, which helps to explain why vaquita numbers continued to dwindle. What’s more, what little effect the ban did have on dissuading fisherman is now gone entirely because the ban expired in April 2017.”

The smallest member of the porpoise family is the most endangered marine mammal in the world. Unsustainable and illegal fishing practices have caused a dramatic decline in the vaquita’s population. Fewer than 30 vaquita may be left in the wild and without immediate action, they face imminent extinction. Join me and @World_Wildlife and let President Peña Nieto of Mexico know that we demand action to protect the vaquita today. Link in bio.

A post shared by Leonardo DiCaprio (@leonardodicaprio) on May 10, 2017 at 6:41pm PDT