BajaNomad

Is Baja tuna farming sustainable?

mtgoat666 - 8-8-2025 at 05:00 PM

I see so many pens floating off Baja,… and San Diego bait vendor says the wild bait fish is depleted, and they are having trouble catching bait for sportfishing market… prompting a few Qs that googling could not answer right away
How many ranchers/pens are there off baja?
Tuna Tonnage per year?
How many tons bait fish per year?

I have seen the many pens off coast north of Ensenada while driving by… how far south are the pens? Are they off camalu and san q?

Something tells me the ranching is a bit much, maybe hurting bait fish population… anyone know of real and useful data on this?

Tioloco - 8-8-2025 at 11:00 PM

Do you think Mexico has real/ reliable data on this?
Money$$$$ makes things happen and those against it disappear.

chatolj - 8-9-2025 at 07:53 AM

I don't have the answers to your specific questions but I know that feeding offshore pelagic fish with inshore bait stocks has been disrupting the natural balance for quite a few yeas now. Inshore fish species migrate up and down the coast looking for their preferred water temperature and food source and its missing from the equation. Those pinned up Bluefin tuna are eating machines.

To make matters worse, the 2025 Pacific Bluefin quota has been raised by 80% by the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission due to the fact that past quota limits have helped the biomass rebuild. So look forward to more floating Pins and even less inshore bait stocks. The only way to stop the Tuna farming will be when the inshore Sardine, Mackerel and Anchovy stock completely collapses. Sad.

AKgringo - 8-9-2025 at 08:17 AM

Damage to the natural flora and fauna in the area from excessive nutrients, biological waste, and antibiotics fed to the penned-up fish can affect the food chain from the bottom up!

I hope this is being monitored closely, and wonder where the money behind this is coming from.

wilderone - 8-9-2025 at 02:45 PM

The $$ ??
"The fattened tuna are then sold to global markets, particularly in Japan, where they fetch high prices for their buttery texture and quality, as well as to high-end restaurants and specialty markets in other parts of the world, including the United States."

The Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) and the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) are the primary international bodies responsible for managing the Pacific Bluefin tuna fishery, including those raised in pens, while local monitoring may involve the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California (UABC) for water quality. The IATTC specifically manages tuna in the eastern Pacific, where Ensenada is located, and works with member nations to establish quotas and monitor fish stocks

But as stated, disrupts the natural balance. Wonder could have been but for those tuna pens - 20 years? 30 years?

bajaric - 8-10-2025 at 03:39 PM

Most of the pens seem to be based in the Bahia de Todos Santos, off Ensenada, though I have seen them being towed around off the coastline between Ensenada and the Coronados.

It might be that the waters offshore Northern Baja are simply more productive, baitfish wise, and feeding the baitfish to tuna and selling the tuna to Japan is a sustainable fishery. Why might this be? For one, upwelling off Punta Banda brings a lot of nutrients to the surface. Another reason that there might be more baitfish off Northern Baja is the lack of deep water sewage outfalls off shore Baja California.

While the discharge of sewage from Tijuana to Imperial Beach has been a source of friction for decades, the amount of sewage discharged to the ocean from Tijuana is a drop in the bucket compared to what gets dumped in the ocean from Southern California. What is more, the Southern California sewage is introduced to deep waters about a mile offshore, while the TJ sewage goes into shallow waters on the beach where it is exposed to oxygen by wave action before it drifts north.

chatolj - 8-11-2025 at 04:44 PM

"Most of the pens seem to be based in the Bahia de Todos Santos, off Ensenada, though I have seen them being towed around off the coastline between Ensenada and the Coronados."

There are very few pens located in Bahia De Todos Santos. The multitude of pens formally at Punta Salsipudes (El Mirador) were moved to the lee of south Coranado years ago. The Island of Todos Santos have some working pens but not that many.

"It might be that the waters offshore Northern Baja are simply more productive, baitfish wise, and feeding the baitfish to tuna and selling the tuna to Japan is a sustainable fishery. Why might this be? For one, upwelling off Punta Banda brings a lot of nutrients to the surface. Another reason that there might be more baitfish off Northern Baja is the lack of deep water sewage outfalls off shore Baja California."

The Purse Seine bait boats based in Puerto El Sauzal travel great distances from the boarder and to the south a few hundred miles looking for Bluefin feed. They are there because there are no regulations or quotas on the take of the resource. Not because of the cold water upwelling off Punta Banda. Actually there are times when bait feed is trucked in to feed the pen fish because there is no bait feed in the Purse Seine's range.

"While the discharge of sewage from Tijuana to Imperial Beach has been a source of friction for decades, the amount of sewage discharged to the ocean from Tijuana is a drop in the bucket compared to what gets dumped in the ocean from Southern California. What is more, the Southern California sewage is introduced to deep waters about a mile offshore, while the TJ sewage goes into shallow waters on the beach where it is exposed to oxygen by wave action before it drifts north".

Sewage : Tijuana's 2.3 million population are sending millions of gallons of untreated waste water along with unchecked industrial waste directly on the beach as well as pumping 60 million gallons a day of treated sewage two miles offshore. Compared to the 3.2 million population of San Diego county's highly treated sewage discharged over 4 miles offshore at a few hundred foot depth. That is NOT a drop in the bucket. Those bait boats don't fish four miles offshore. They fish very near the beach.

There is no way feeding offshore Pelagic fish inshore bait fish sustainable. Offshore fish need to eat offshore feed, nearshore fish need to eat nearshore feed. It's a simple balance of nature. We all know what happens when we mess mother nature.

bajaric - 8-13-2025 at 04:14 PM

Thank you for sharing your knowledge. I looked on Google Earth and saw about 7 pens in Bahia Todos Santos, and about 20 at south Coronado. I thought, sheesh, what is the big deal, how much tuna can those pens produce? As it turns out, the Baja tuna farms produce a whopping 4000-5000 tons of bluefin per season. This is about double the entire annual catch of Atlantic bluefin. According to online sources, 100 tons of tuna eat 7 tons of sardines each day. The season lasts 5-6 months. So at an average weight of 3000 tons in the pens they are feeding them 30 tons of sardines a day or 5,400 tons over a season.

That is really not that much in the greater scheme of things. The annual sardine catch in Baja in 1994 was about 45,000 tons, the majority of which was ground up in to fish meal and also some canned. Apparently they are no longer using them for fish meal at El Suazal, so basically what happened is the sardines they were grinding up for fertilizer are now getting fed to bluefin.

If the bluefin were left in the wild they would be eating squid and anchovies. So it is true that a shallow water inshore fish (sardines live in water up to 100 meters) is feeding a deep water pelagic, but the sardines would have been caught and used for fish meal anyway, so the tuna farming does not appear to be causing a net increase in sardines taken. What is more, all those captive fish are not eating squid and anchovies, leaving more for the other pelagic fish like yellowtail and other species of tuna. It is also providing a lot of jobs and money to the people of Ensenada, in what is called value added, versus grinding the sardines up for fish meal.

To me, the more interesting question is why today there are still plenty of sardines offshore Baja California and almost none off the coast of Alta California. Back in the 1930's - 1940's purse seiners out of Monterey caught and astonishing amount of sardines, peaking at 800,000 tons in one year about 1939. The population then collapsed, recovered a little, and then collapsed again, so that there is currently a moratorium on sardine fishing in Alta California. Maybe the Mexicans are on to something. They do have many highly educated people there who know a lot about fish and sustainable fishing, particularly in Ensenada. Or by virtue of pure dumb luck the water offshore Baja California is more condusive to growth of plankton, which is what sardines eat. Perhaps all those deep water sewage outfalls were not such a good idea after all. Indeed, perhaps it is time to rethink the idea of sucking all the water out of the Colorado River and using it once to flush toilets and then dumping it in the ocean.




[Edited on 8-13-2025 by bajaric]

BeachSeeker - 8-14-2025 at 07:44 AM

Quote: Originally posted by bajaric  
To me, the more interesting question is why today there are still plenty of sardines offshore Baja California and almost none off the coast of Alta California


Quote: Originally posted by bajaric  
Back in the 1930's - 1940's purse seiners out of Monterey caught and astonishing amount of sardines, peaking at 800,000 tons in one year about 1939.


I think you kind of answered your own question there. While we lament Mexicans for overfishing, let's not forget that 50 - 100 years ago, we absolutely decimated the California coast. The fishing regulations and limits now serve to barely keep the stock alive. I think Mexico has the benefit of modern knowledge of sustainability while their stocks are still somewhat decent. They just got a slower start to killing everything because there just wasn't enough people doing it 50-100 years ago in Mexico.

[Edited on 8-14-2025 by BeachSeeker]

mtgoat666 - 8-14-2025 at 08:03 AM

Quote: Originally posted by BeachSeeker  
Quote: Originally posted by bajaric  
To me, the more interesting question is why today there are still plenty of sardines offshore Baja California and almost none off the coast of Alta California


Quote: Originally posted by bajaric  
Back in the 1930's - 1940's purse seiners out of Monterey caught and astonishing amount of sardines, peaking at 800,000 tons in one year about 1939.


I think you kind of answered your own question there. While we lament Mexicans for overfishing, let's not forget that 50 - 100 years ago, we absolutely decimated the California coast. The fishing regulations and limits now serve to barely keep the stock alive. I think Mexico has the benefit of modern knowledge of sustainability while their stocks are still somewhat decent. They just got a slower start to killing everything because there just wasn't enough people doing it 50-100 years ago in Mexico.

[Edited on 8-14-2025 by BeachSeeker]


Cartel controls seafood industry in BCS. Do they control tuna farming in Baja?

In BCS does cartel force fishing above seasonal quota limits?

AKgringo - 8-14-2025 at 08:47 AM

"In BCS does cartel force fishing above seasonal quota limits?"

I doubt it. If they control the supply, it would be to their benefit to keep it well below the demand to keep the price high. I am sure there will be cheaters trying to cash in on the higher price, just as OPEC members did when they cut production to raise the price of crude oil.