Articulos

Una Carta Abierta a la Asociación de Pesca Deportiva de California

Sportsfishing Association of California
1084 Bangor St.
San Diego, CA 92106

Dear Bob:

I got your email last night and first want to make the following two points. I then want to figure out how best we can work with Mexico in the development of their Management Plan for the Islands.

1.- Sportfishing at the Islands: Sea Watch has always said how important it was to have all sports fisherman out there as eyes. It was the first and last thing we told Sec. Santiago Creel, "Don’t close the Islands to sportsboats". Just read our letter to him. He saw the problem with his own eyes as he watched the longliner working at Benedicto. He knows how important it is to have sportsboats at the Islands. He actually went to Profepa with an open mind about sportsboats at the Islands and was told in an internal letter that under the LGEEP law it couldn’t happen, nothing could be extracted. Profepa’s ruling came as a result of a lawsuit filed over one year ago against several long-range boats and yachts. Sea Watch had nothing to do with that lawsuit, in fact I called you when it happened. We have always said there was a major problem with illegal commercial boats, but to my knowledge, it has only been Sea Watch and it’s network of other boats that have been reporting the illegal commercial boats, putting them on television and following up to make sure that the government prosecuted them (over 20 so far). www.seawatch.org for details.

2.- Sea Watch Fisheries Report: Our report on the Islands has always been represented as anecdotal. It is what the best of the freediving hunters have seen underwater for the last 15 years at the inner 3 Islands. We specifically say in the report that we know nothing about Clarion, but it doesn’t take scientific method, simple logic will do, to tell you that 3-16 boats fishing the six square miles of fishing area around Benedicto day after day is going to strongly affect the local fisheries. For every fisherman that says things are OK, we can find a long time long-range who says the catches of wahoo, both size and quantity have significantly decreased. It’s time to forget trying to discredit each other and find out what will really work at the Islands for the future.

That said, The Mexican Government will be developing the Biosphere Management Plan. They will be doing it within their existing environmental laws, using their Institutions of Investigation, input from society, the sellers of services at the Islands, etc. They will be soliciting input from all user groups and in the end they will come up with a consensus as to what activities will be allowed in the biosphere. Hopefully we can work closely with them on stock assessments, tagging programs, financial and environmental impacts of user groups, etc. If the data gathered shows the biosphere will support a fishery, that it will be financially beneficial and that it will be sustainable there may be a good chance of a fishery being reestablished

Rather than try to drive a wedge between user groups, how about working together and offering to help Mexico develop some of the important parts of the Management Plan, like continuing stock assessments, tagging programs, financial impacts of user groups, etc.

Stock Assessment: Sea Watch has been working with several scientists, some have worked on pelagic fish sampling in Mexico. They are helping develop a sampling protocol for measuring pelagic fish at the Islands. The one most directly involved is Salvador Jorgensen, (sjjorgensen@ucdavis.edu). If Mexico will let us help and since you don’t agree with our figures anyway, how about SAC requesting permission from Mexico to get involved with scientists, freedivers, and photographers and offering to do some or all of stock assessment work at the Islands? It is important to get good baseline data immediately after the Islands have closed and then to monitor changes in populations over the next months and years. Without that data it will be hard to justify an ongoing fisheries program. I’m sure there are lots of freedivers that would look forward to helping out and being part of the solution.

Tagging fish: There is no better group than fishermen for tagging fish. We have been working on a wahoo tagging program with Heidi Dewar and have applied to the Mexican Government to start this tagging program at the Islands. We have developed a technique for tagging wahoo with a speargun that works very well. I would think you could involve a lot of Southern California fishermen willing to help in a tagging only (wahoo and tuna) program at the Islands. Tags could also be put on by the same divers doing stock assessment. If it were true that the Islands were not only a breeding ground, which we think we know (see attached tagging program), but that the Island stocks supplied wahoo to the banks around the southern Baja, the implications for sound management are tremendous.

As I’m sure you know, Mexico wants input from all interested user groups. The people who know and utilize the Islands most, need to be involved. That certainly includes SAC boats, their captains and crews and the freediving hunters that have been diving there for the last 15 -20 years. It will be to our benefit and to the benefit of the Revillagigedo Islands to work together with the Mexican Government in developing a comprehensive management plan. Barbara Gomez Morin who is the Director of Sea Watch in Mexico has spent the last weeks in Mexico City talking with the various agencies involved with the Islands and with the management plan. She has a good understanding of what’s going on there and she understands all sides of the issue. If you would like to talk with her please contact her at barbara@cabotel.com.mx. I’ll be out of the country for a few days, but would like to hear your comments. I’m reachable via the same email.

Regards,
Mike McGettigan
Founder, Sea Watch