Click Here to contact mexican officials.
Russell Nelson, Ph.D.: Reef Analysis
Petition: Signatures of fishing families
Video: Presentation on reef fishing situation
The Barren Reefs in the Sea of Cortez.
The inshore reefs in all the Sea of Cortez are now, for the most part, totally barren. Could nets alone do this kind of damage? How could 10s of 1000s of tons of reef fish disappear without anyone knowing or caring? This is how it happened in BCS, between La Paz and The Loreto Marine Park.
The story started in the mid 1980’s when approximately 15,000 pangas, most with monofilament gillnets nets were allowed to fish anywhere, for whatever they wanted. By the mid 1990s these “passive” nets were becoming ineffective and two new “proactive” fishing methods came into being. These techniques, while illegal, overnight became the main and most efficient methods for cleaning the reefs of everything (fish, lobster, sea cucumbers, snails, shells, anything saleable)
The first method started on the Baja coastline about 7-8 years ago. It involves putting Hooka divers into the water to locate the remaining pockets of small reef fish. Once located monofilament gillnets are strategically located and then the hooka divers, herd and drive the remaining schools of fish into the nets. In the first year pangas were averaging about 1000 kilos a day. Within two years the reefs from Loreto to La Paz lost most of their small reef fish, like yellow pargo and cardinales. 100s of tons each year were taken in La Paz, the Loreto Marine Park and the Gulf Islands between.
Many of the larger parrot fish, cabrilla, and pargo didn’t get caught in the monofilament nets so about 6 years ago there started a small “Pistolero” fishery in Loreto and La Paz shooting these larger fish at night with spearguns.
As fish disappeared completely on the mainland, many people came to the Baja. Overnight they changed the illegal “Pistolero” fishery, by switching to modified Hawaiian slings and having a third person in the water as a bag and lobster man.
5 years ago catches went from approximately 200 kilos a night to 1200 to1500 kilos. One panga with two brothers from Guaymas took 50 tons of reef fish their first year in La Paz.
This illegal fishery targeted everything that was on the reef. They collected lobster, octopus, snails, clams as well as all sized fish.
In the beginning, 25 to 40 were taking well over 1000 tons of reef fish from the reefs of La Paz, the Loreto Marine Park and the gulf Islands between.
They now export from 15 to 30 tons a week to the mainland and over up to 75% of the fish in the local market came from illegal spearfishing and netting on the reefs.
There are now over 100 pangas with compressors, monofilament gillnets and Hawaiian slings finishing the last of the reef fish in the La Paz area alone.
While these pangas are only getting about 150 kilos/night and 80% of that catch is sleeping parrot fish, this fishing method is still proliferating and is now used on all the reefs in the Sea of Cortez and recently has become the main fishing method on the Pacific coast of the Baja.
You can make a difference!
Click Here to contact mexican officials.
Russell Nelson, Ph.D.: Reef Analysis
Petition: Signatures of 300 fishing families
Video: Presentation on reef fishing situation
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