Even as new Government proposals designed to restore Ecological Order to the Gulf of California and new state councils on fisheries are meeting the final chapter is being written on the destruction of the Sea of Cortez.

Most of the fish are already gone from the Sea of Cortez. One of the only areas left to still have 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 Cortez and at one time the Islands and the nearby seamounts were a major attraction to divers from around the world. The major dive community long ago moved on, due to depleted fisheries on the sea mounts, but novice divers, snorkelers, kayakers and other ecotourists continued to arrive to enjoy the tropical waters 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.

At about the same time as the new state Consejo Estatal de Pesca y Acuacultura headed up by Governor Leonel Cota held their third meeting in La Paz to discuss fisheries problems, a couple La Paz fishing cooperatives were getting permits to finish the reef fish populations around the gulf Islands. They had found a way to profitably decimate the few remaining reef fish. Necessity is the mother of invention and as the fish decline the new generation finds better ways to take the last fish.

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 Maldiva V and the Bahia de La Paz that 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 (1000-1500 reef fish). They can easily set their net two times each day. The net is set along the rocks and 2 divers using compressors (hooka) drive the fish 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 and estimates are that 5000 to 10,000 or more reef fish are dying each day. According to local fishermen, the commercial fishermen operating from Playa Blanca in the Loreto Marine Reserve are the worst offenders. Even though this practice is illegal due to the use of compressors, it can easily be done by good free divers and would be completely legal under current law.

If the new BCS State Consejo Estatal de Pesca y Acuacultura is not ready to ban all inshore gillnets in their territorial waters, 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 every spring. Nothing short of a complete ban will work! Only hook and line can be used! Even the commercial fishermen will tell you that. The dramatic declines in the Sea of Cortez 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 will soon end with those same nets