Sea Watch | Depletion: What the Fisherman Say

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Depletion: What the Fisherman Say

Where Have All the Pelagics Gone?

The following interviews have been done with fishermen and divers who are familiar with the fishing decline in the Revillagigedo Islands in the Pacific Ocean off the Baja. The fishermen that have been out working in the seas for the last 20 to 30 years are often seeing a completely different ocean than are the scientists and administrators of the NMFS and the eight Regional Fish Counsels that control the US fisheries, the Department of PESCA and the INP (Instituto National de PESCA) that control fisheries and fisheries science in Mexico. The fish management and science in both countries are and have been controlled by those favoring commercial interests. The Highly Migratory Species Advisory Subpanel now considering longlines in California has 13 members 9 are from the commercial fishing Industry.

The people who fish daily in the ocean know when sealife disappears. They are constantly using their eyes for life signs in the ocean to tell where the fish are. When those life signs disappear it is the fishermen, not the scientists who know it first. In the last 25 years the scientists and fish managers have continually got it wrong. We have to put more faith in the empirical data that our fishermen are giving us and take back what's left of our ocean resources from those that will continue the destructive fish management policies of the past.

Brian Quinn	Brian Quinn Q: What is your fishing background? A: I have been freediving the Revillagigedo Islands since 1994 and have logged over400 hours in the water at Isla San Benedicto and Socorro. Previously I spent years diving and spearfishing in Hawaii and other locations in Mexico. A freediver sees everything in the water and has interactions with pelagic fish that a tank diver will never have. Observations: The average size and number of wahoo has decreased in every dive location. When I first started diving the Islands. The average wahoo size was 40-50 lb. Now it is 20-30 lb. The tuna are smaller and fewer. There are almost no 150 to 200 pound fish anymore around the Islands. There are fewer sharks, although the big ones still seem to be there, easily identified by the hooks and lines hanging out of there mouths.

Brian Yoshikawa	Brian Yoshikawa Q: What is your fishing background? A: I started diving and spearfishing at the age of seven in 1972. I started competitive diving locally in 1983 and nationally in 1989. I dive Micronesia, Tahiti, the remote areas of northwestern Hawaii and the Revillagigedo Islands in Mexico. I have spent approximately 1200 hours freediving in the waters around the Revillagigedo Islands since 1991. Observations: In the last 10 years the average size of wahoo has gone from about 50 to 70 pounds to 25 to 35 and the number of people you see free diving the inner three islands is about 40 to 50% of what was there 10 years ago. There are no really big fish (over 250 lb.) anymore. We used to see several each year, now you are lucky to see even one at 200 pounds. The larger schools of small ten to twenty pound fish are also gone. Ten years ago you would see hundreds of fish that would swim by you for ten to fifteen minutes at a time. Now the schools are much smaller. The increased fishing pressure at the inner islands has left about fifty percent of the sharks swimming around with hooks and lines hanging out of their mouths.

Gerald Lim	Gerald Lim Q: What is your fishing background? A: I have been freediving for twenty years and I have been diving the Revillagigedo Islands for the past ten years. I have spent over 1000 hours in the water there over that period of time. I have been diving SE Asia, Australia, Adriatic, Tahiti, Mexico and the USA on the way to two National Championships. I am an endodontist practicing in Relands, CA Observations: In the 20 years of freediving around the world, I have never seen as unique and incredible diving as at the Revillagigedo Islands. The Islands have a variety of big animals like whales, marlin, yellowfin tuna, giant mantas and dolphin unequaled anywhere in the world. There has been a dramatic decrease in hammerhead and Galapagos sharks in the last 5 years. There has even been a major decrease in the reef fish in the last three to five years. The chubs, blue jacks, and chopas are down about 30 to 40%. Ten years ago you would never shoot a yellowfin tuna under 200 pounds and now you are lucky to see one over 100 pounds. There has been a dramatic decrease in both tuna numbers and their size. The same is also true of wahoo. Where you would see several hundred on a nine day trip ten years ago, you only see a few today and they are much smaller, weighing about twenty to thirty pounds.