David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64479
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
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CLAMS: Can non-Mexicans collect them? Answer...
Following my reply in the Conception Bay Real Estate thread, was a u2u question. It is worth sharing my response for others...
I have been asked about this clam collecting rule. I thought it was pretty common knowledge here on Nomad? However, just so you guys know I didn't
make that clam rule up, here are some Internet sources of Mexican fishing regulations:
From Gene Kira's MexFish.com:
1. The catching of "fish" only is allowed. Specifically prohibited are "crustaceans," "mollusks," "marine mammals," "reptiles" and
"amphibians.
Traditionally, Mexican inspectors have been lenient in allowing tourists to take such things as clams when it's "only for personal consumption."
However, that has become very risky as enforcement has been steadily tightened in recent years, especially with regard to such economically lucrative
species as lobster and abalone. Interestingly, Thompson's book makes no mention about "for personal consumption allowed." So watch it. This important
booklet should be required reading for all of us who go fishing in Mexico.
Many other sites also have the rules, including Baja Bound Insurance:
A fishing license allows to capture only fin fish. It does not allow to capture any mollusks or crustaceans, and their capture by anyone is
strictly prohibited. Totuava, turtles and marine mammals are under protection of the Ministry and may not be captured at any time.
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bajaguy
Elite Nomad
Posts: 9247
Registered: 9-16-2003
Location: Carson City, NV/Ensenada - Baja Country Club
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Mood: must be 5 O'clock somewhere in Baja
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Many gringos believe that laws in Mexico, enforced or not, do not apply to them.
It's the old..."everybody else does it".......mantra
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64479
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
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Agree with that.
I think most feel that to feed oneself is also probably okay, but to harvest more than you need for a meal is not. I have had plenty of Mexican
citizens invite me to go get as many clams as I wanted (before I ever heard of such a law), so it is a law most of them do not know of or one they are
fine with us gringos ignoring... like some fishing limits back when it was good fishing in Baja, and speeding on long straight highways... or driving
on the beach!
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bajabuddha
Banned
Posts: 4024
Registered: 4-12-2013
Location: Baja New Mexico
Member Is Offline
Mood: Always cranky unless medicated
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for 15 years wintering on Concepcion I saw and did a lot of clam-gathering, the little white steamers. I'd try to school people who went clamming to
just take enough to eat that night..... but half the time they'd come back with 5 times more than they needed and then gave them away as 'gifts' to
other beach dwellers. Total travesty. The whole gig is don't get greedy. One very popular but remote beach got damned near cleaned out, and all
that were left were little immature ones, and sure enough a French couple went down and gathered half a 5 gallon bucket of babies, and when I
mentioned they were immature I was told, "but we like ze leetle onez!" Yeah, right. BTW, this was BEFORE I knew the regulations on shellfish.
Same goes with legal fishing; catch and release other than what you're going to eat or freeze for the drive home. The average camping Joe can impact
an ecosystem that's under pressure, so as the toys and tourism increases in Baja keep that in mind. I would always crimp down the barbs on my hooks
and fish totally barbless, and the last three years did not fish with any live or cut bait, strictly metal. Never got skunked in 3 years..... but I
will admit i'd stop outside the mouth of the Cove and catch a sand bass just so's I had bragging rights.
To me the reg's on clamming are like the reg's on sea shell gathering, which is also illegal according to the Law. As if there aren't enough calcium
carbonate skeletons around to have a few shiny mementos. Who HASN'T taken home a few shells for the house or yard? I used to gather the 'Burro'
snail shells (Beeg Juans) and make trumpetas (horns) out of them and give them away as gifts. Probably made a hundred or so.... they'll still wash up
on the shores where I found 'em. We'd blow the horns at c-cktail hour to summon the troops for muster and martinis. Some of the best memories of
Baja.
So sue me. 
I don't have a BUCKET LIST, but I do have a F***- IT LIST a mile long!
86 - 45*
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sancho
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 2524
Registered: 10-6-2004
Location: OC So Cal
Member Is Offline
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I think it is also being UNAWARE of regs as well as the 'everybody does it'. I'm sure the no take on clams reg
would come as a surprise to many. Haven't seen it recently,
but the popular fish Cabrilla was once on the no take, I assume
it was reserved for the Mex Commercial fishermen. One can
go quite a ways into Mex regs, quite sure many don't know it
is illegal to collect shells, so that sand dollar wind chime could technically be against regs. I'm sure Pesca officials would laugh
at that. One is responsible to know the regs. I would never
knowingly violate one, in actual practice some regs, which one
finds on the internet may or not be current, nor even known
to Mex Authorities
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fishbuck
Banned
Posts: 5318
Registered: 8-31-2006
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Thus is an easy one.
Make a mexican friend, provide beer, and take him/her clam digging. Party after!
I don't need no stinkin'clam badge!
"A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for." J. A. Shedd.
A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it. – Albert Einstein
"Life's a Beach... and then you Fly!" Fishbuck
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Pappy Jon
Nomad
Posts: 494
Registered: 8-27-2003
Location: Wrong side of the Continental divide.
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Mood: Temp rising.
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I couldn't find a clam on a beach if it bit my toe.
"The association of flowers and warm-blooded love is more than a romantic convention; it is based upon one of the great advances in the evolution
of life." Ed Abbey
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