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Most of the fish are already gone from the Sea of Cortes.
One of the only areas left to still have a few fish are the
southern gulf Islands, located between Loreto and La Paz in
BCS. These Islands are some of the most beautiful in the Sea
of Cortes and at one time the Islands and the nearby seamounts
were a major attraction to divers from around the world. The
major world dive community long ago moved on, due to depleted
fisheries on the sea mounts, but novice divers, snorkelers,
kayakers and other eco-tourists continued to arrive to enjoy
the tropical waters and reef fish around the Islands. Millions
have been spent on these Islands to stop their commercialization,
but nothing has been done to protect the waters around the
Islands and now they have become a wasteland.
Two La Paz fishing cooperatives with at least nine boats
are targeting the reef fish populations around the lower gulf
Islands. This new fleet of boats and the young fishermen running
them are armed with new 225 meter long inshore monofilament
gill nets. They have new large Yamaha motors, new dive compressors
and the latest diving gear. Examples of these type of boats
are the Flor de Malva II, III, IV, V, VI, VII and the Bahia
de La Paz I, II, III, IV . Five of these boats have been working
the Islands of San Jose, Santa Cruz and San Diego for the
last several weeks. On this day at Santa Cruz Island, it took
the Bahia de La Paz just over 3 hours, to kill over ½
ton of small reef fish (about 1000 reef fish). They can easily
set their net two to three times each day. The 250 meter monofilament
net is set at the base of the reef along the rocks and then
both ends are brought up over the reef. 2-4 divers using compressors
(hooka) then swim into the semicircle of the net and drive
the fish into the net. The divers can within one hour drive
all the fish inside this 250 meter semicircle into the nets.
This scenario is being repeated many times daily along the
shores of the southern gulf Islands between Loreto and Cabo
San Lucas. Local fisherman say they have repeatedly reported
this to Sargarpa and as always nothing has been done. According
to local fishermen from San Evaristo, the commercial fishermen
operating from Playa Blanca in the Loreto Marine Reserve are
even worse offenders.
If the Federal Government (SARGARPA) and/or the new BCS State
Consejo Estatal de Pesca y Acuacultura are not ready to ban
inshore gillnets from the Sea of Cortes, then they shouldn't
waste their time trying to stop the destruction. Also, by
eliminating the gillnets they will stop the worst destruction
of all, the taking of huge schools of breeding pargo and other
snappers every spring. Nothing short of a complete ban
will stop the decline. Only hook and line can be used!
All the commercial fishermen we interviewed this summer (except
those using these gillnets) said the nets had to go if the
Sea was to survive. The dramatic declines in the Sea of Cortes
started with the advent of monofilament gillnets in the mid
1970s. Now there are 1000s of these nets in use in BCS and
the last of the fisheries here will soon end with those same
nets.
Pictures tell the story:
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