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In letter addressed to Amigos del Mar director John Brakey, the director of fisheries Prisciliano Melendrez Barrios says, that banning drift gillnets in Mexican water is now in limbo awaiting further studies and that he wants the sportsfishing industry to prove that they are bad before suggesting that they be removed .
On the 10th of December new Fisheries Commissioner Ramon Corral said in La Paz at the, Consejo Estatal de Pesca y Acuacultura de Baja California Sur:
Gillnets must immediately be removed from Mexican waters.
Longliners must have valid permits and must stay out of protected waters.
Mexico will not tolerate processing boats in it's waters.
VMS must be implemented quickly and that bids were being taken.
A new proposed shark Norma (shark fishing regulations) drawn up by scientists from Mexico and the States was delivered at that meeting. It reflected and agreed with what Commissioner Corral said regarding the removal of drift gillnets and control of longlines.
One month later on the 12th of January the director of fisheries Prisciliano Melendrez
Barrios came out with a letter saying that gillnets are not that bad and citing all the
same old lines for keeping the status quo and not removing gillnets from Mexican waters;
not enough scientific evidence, it's not been established that drift gillnets are devastating
and let's all work together to gather more long term data and science. In the meantime
we won't issue any new permits. Of course he doesn't mention the 200 longline (boats
over 10 meters) and 50 large boat gillnet permits that already are out there.
As Sea Watch has said all along, without a new Shark Norma (shark fishing regulation)
that removes drift gillnets and puts controls on longliners, the fisheries will continue
their downward spiral and more and more whales will continue to die in the drift gillnets.
Whales and Drift gillnets: Ever since attention was focused on the plight of the whales in
January 2003 with the Sea Watch video "Tesoro sin protecion" public opinion has been demanding
the removal of all drift gillnets from all Mexican waters. In August Diana Ponce wrote a
letter to Commissioner Geronimo Ramos
demanding the immediate removal of gillnets from all Mexican waters and in October we had a
meeting at the Consejo Estatal de Pesca y Acuacultura de Baja California Sur where we brought in
Dr. Juan Pablo Gallo Reynoso whose
report on the plight of the whales
was impressive with approximately 20 plus whales found dead entangled in nets in 2003.
Now with the latest special reports funded by Seawatch, Amigos del Mar and La Fundación
para la Conservación de los Picudos (FCP), about the two new whales found trapped in the
nets in January of this year, public disapproval is very strong world wide. Sea Watch was
in Canada last week and there was strong public anger about the killing of the whales that
are such a big business for Canadians.
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