BajaNomad

Sea Cucumber Poachers Arrested near BOLA.

Anonymous - 12-8-2002 at 07:57 PM

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/20021208-9999_1m8c...

By Sandra Dibble

TIJUANA ? In the Sea of Cortes, they're known as pepineros, divers who catch sea cucumbers, and for years their gravest dangers were natural ones: inclement weather, decompression sickness, the occasional shark.

Now their biggest threat is of a different nature: inspectors from Profepa, Mexico's environmental police.

Toughened sanctions for poaching can mean years behind bars for anyone caught with endangered and protected species in Mexico's wildlife preserves. A group of seven fishermen arrested off the Baja California coast found that out the hard way.

The seven, all from the Sea of Cortes fishing community of Bahia Kino in the state of Sonora, have been in custody since their arrests Oct. 12. The charges ? for catching a protected species in a protected natural area ? are considered so serious that the men aren't allowed to post bail.

Sea cucumbers are prized in Asia as a delicacy and aphrodisiac. They are echinoderms, related to the starfish and sea urchin. Of more than 1,200 species worldwide, only 40 are considered edible.

One of the most marketable is the dark-brown Isostichopus fuscus, known in English as the rock sea cucumber. In Mexico it is fished primarily in the Sea of Cortes, where it is found clinging to rocks beneath the water's surface. It sells on the international market for about $4.50 a pound.

Known as the earthworms of the sea, sea cucumbers are natural recyclers that filter ocean sediments.

"That's not as exciting as whales or dolphins or turtles, but it's really important for the ecosystem," said Kim Davis, senior fisheries officer for Traffic North America, a division of the World Wildlife Fund that monitors the wildlife trade.

Conservationists have begun to look closer at the species in recent years as populations have declined worldwide. A rush to catch them in the Galapagos Islands in the 1990s attracted widespread attention, and Ecuador instituted a ban on their harvesting in 1994.

In the United States, California is among several states with a management plan for sea cucumbers, requiring a special permits for divers and trawlers.

Dinorah Herrero Perezrul, who studies sea cucumbers at Cicimar, a marine research center in Baja California Sur, said the species was first exploited in Mexico during the 1980s. The entire catch is destined for the export market, sent first to the United States, and from there to Asia.

The Mexican government has banned the catch of Isostichopus fuscus since 1994, listing it as an endangered species. Though its status has since been downgraded to protected, the ban remains in place.

For Profepa, the October arrests off Bahia de los Angeles were something of a coup as the agency tries to crack down on illegal fishing in the Sea of Cortes.

Poachers have been stopped in the past, but they were usually released after posting bail. Earlier this year, however, reforms to Mexico's penal code increased the maximum penalties from six to nine years. The increase allowed judges to deny bail to serious offenders.

"This is the first time that Profepa's efforts received an echo from Mexico's judicial system," said Alejandro Alvarez Card##as, the head of the agency's Baja California office.

The fishermen were caught in two small boats in a specially protected area of the Sea of Cortes, off Isla Estaneque south of Bahia de los Angeles. The sea cucumbers were "fresh and cooked and recently caught," said Oswaldo Santillan, a Profepa inspector who led the arrests.

The sea cucumber is often cooked immediately after being caught to reduce its size for easier transportation.

Luis Bourillon, director of Community and Biodiversity, a nonprofit group that works with coastal fishing groups in Sonora, said depleted populations of sea cucumber have made the catch more difficult in recent years. But the prospect of earning some money propels some to risk getting caught.

"Turtles have a local market, but cucumber brings in dollars," Bourillon said.

Fishermen are angry that the species is off-limits, said Francisco Javier Carrillo, president of the Central Sonora Federation of Cooperatives. He said the species hasn't been studied enough to completely ban the catch.

The detentions, he said, have had a chilling effect: "A lot of people are not working sea cucumber anymore, because they are afraid."

JESSE - 12-8-2002 at 08:07 PM

Great!!!! i hope they at least give those guys a year in jail for what they did.

Good for profepa to enforce those laws.

Stephanie Jackter - 12-9-2002 at 10:02 AM

Yes, I'm very happy to see the feds are taking the disruptive impact of catching sea animals that don't have the cachet of dolphins and whales into account.

I feel sorry for the guys who got caught, but if hanging a few guys out to dry will put a damper on the poaching, that will be a good trade. Go, Profepa! - Stephanie

The other side of the coin...

David K - 12-10-2002 at 10:30 PM

Just for conversation sake:

If man wasn't supposed to harvest sea cucumbers, why does God make them edible? What will happen to those poor families who survived on an income source now stolen by enviro-wackos.

How do you feel about the forcing of more to take the dangerous (and illegal) route north of the border, seeking a living, all because of some sea slug?

Don't you think that God or Mother Nature already has another way to filter the sea, if this ONE species disappears...? I mean really, will the millions of life forms in the ocean all die because a sea cucumber is no longer in abundance?

Now, where did I put that can of bootleg turtle soup??? :-)

[Edited on 11-12-2002 by David K]

Anonymous - 12-11-2002 at 12:30 PM

Along the same line of reasoning, David...If man wasn't supposed to smoke marijuana, then why did God make it available?
Just thought of an idea! Humans are edible, right! Well,???????

Anonymous - 12-11-2002 at 03:29 PM

Very good point Anon. I will have to include that in my debates

Also David K in the interest of not attracting a flame war try to avoid condescending terms like enviro-wacko unless you are joking around. If you want to talk seriously about this then be serious.

So David K you are of the opinion that it would be ok to extinct a species because some guys make a (temporary) living off it?

Here are some fun quotes from Fred on everything:

"Environmentally, both Left and Right believe in virtue, but only when it suits them. If I suggest that maybe we don't really need to clearcut the redwoods to make decks for liberal yups that conservatives hate anyway, I get told that people need jobs. But isn't that an argument for expanding the federal bureaucracy? People need jobs?"

"Why do conservatives want to turn the country into an industrial desert? They don't, of course. By no means all conservatives favor irresponsible exploitation, any more than all liberals want to make us into robots. The problem is that the worst of both camps are noisiest and most angry, and therefore shape policy.

Here you have to understand one of the (few) fundamental differences between the far Left and far Right. The Left wants to maximize governmental power so that it can misbehave, usually by imposing some form of tyrannous conformity that everyone hates but can't do anything about.

The Right wants to minimize governmental power so as to avoid restraint on misbehavior, which usually involves any profitable abuse of anything. Both want to behave badly. They just go at it differently. The Left likes group misbehavior. The Right prefers to free-lance."

How about spending some of those drug war billions getting these people an education and sustainable jobs instead of letting them hunt a species to extinction like some Neanderthal.

Bajabus - 12-11-2002 at 03:37 PM

The above post was made by bajabus. Sorry I was not logged in at the time, I was to excited at the prospect of engaging Dr drip aka David K in a debate.

Bat chit

JESSE - 12-11-2002 at 08:00 PM

Some cultures eat bat chit, so i guess anything is edible, for me as long as you are not killing a species thats treatened, its o.k. to eat, even bat chit.

Dave - 12-11-2002 at 11:02 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Stephanie Jackter

I feel sorry for the guys who got caught


Why? They knew they were fishing in a protected area. They were well aware of the ban. They knew they were breaking the law. Hopefully the courts won't feel the same way. Then maybe others will get the message.

Stephanie Jackter - 12-11-2002 at 11:33 PM

Dave, It needs to be appreciated that the men who dive for sea cucumbers (or go in on the take of any other protected species), are making an economic decision that us Americans seldom have to face. They have a pretty stark choice between conserving their environment or making a decent wage to feed their families. It's not like the Mexican economy offers a lot of well paid jobs to fisherman and there are not a lot of equivalent jobs in other sectors to switch to. I don't feel sorry at all when I find that a corporate exec has made a decision that has defiled the environment. But I do feel sorry for these poor Joes who were just doing their best to make ends meet and may pay a heavy price for it. Having said that, I repeat that making an example out of them still seems to be the only way to send the message that the behavior can't be tolerated. - Stephanie

Stephanie Jackter - 12-12-2002 at 10:30 AM

Grover, take note that the Japanese seem to eat almost anything the sea has to offer! - AND consider it a delicacy! They're also bigtime into sea urchins (interesting to find out in that article that they're related to the sea cukes).

One thing that surprised me in that article was that they only pay a few dollars a pound for the sea cucumbers. A few years ago I saw a TV show where divers were harvesting and preparing sea urchins in the gulf coast of Florida for shipment to Japan and they were getting some ungodly price like $50 or $80 dollars a pound. On the same show, they showed how the sea urchins are prepared, and the final product looks like a mushy brown piece of three day old chicken liver. The divers said it tasted horrible, but if that's what the Japanese wanted to pay for, they were happy to oblige. - Stephanie

JESSE - 12-12-2002 at 02:40 PM

I have to disagree with Steph, Mexicans may not have the oportunities of americans, but if you compare the oportunities in Mexico to most other countries we are not doing that bad. People in Mexico can better themselves if they work hard and do things right, in Baja theres plenty of oportunities for the locals, only if they did their homework and worked hard at it.

I have several uncles that use to fish for Sea turtles, and now with a little research, they grow boutique veggied that ed up in the best restaurants in California.

I agree that the biggest problem in Mexico is the goverment, but if you consider that we have low wages, an apetite from the north for things latin, and are neighbors to the US, anybody can think of something to make or produce in Mexico to sell to you gringos, so i dont feel bad for those fishermen, my view is that they should give them some jail time so that other take the laws seriously.

BajaNomad - 12-12-2002 at 09:27 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Stephanie Jackter
They're also bigtime into sea urchins... A few years ago I saw a TV show where divers were harvesting and preparing sea urchins in the gulf coast of Florida for shipment to Japan and they were getting some ungodly price like $50 or $80 dollars a pound. On the same show, they showed how the sea urchins are prepared, and the final product looks like a mushy brown piece of three day old chicken liver. The divers said it tasted horrible, but if that's what the Japanese wanted to pay for, they were happy to oblige.
Haven't been there in awhile, but used to be able to buy the Sea Urchin in Popotla. They used to bring the urchins out of the boats in buckets. I think they were getting $10 for a glass jar of the edible portion (which I believe is the sex organs). Mostly, they were for export. (I have pictures of the urchins in the buckets around here somewhere, but it'd take me awhile to find them... someday when I do, I'll have to scan them in and share the images).

Also, I visited a bay to the north of BOLA one weekend and the only other inhabitants in the area for miles were a diver and the boat driver (who also doubled responsibility for the air pump). They were harvesting the cucumbers (I didn't know it was an illegal setup) and showed me the 55 gallon plastic drum (half-full) of the *live* cucumbers they had). They were in the middle of nowhere, and someone must've dropped them off, as they had no vehicle. They were living in a small seaside shack/shanty.

...fyi.


[Edited on 12-13-2002 by BajaNomad]

BajaNomad - 12-13-2002 at 02:48 PM

After a little research, I've learned that the edible portion are the gonads of both male and female, referred to as "roe" ("uni" in Japanese).

http://seaurchin.org/Sea-Grant-Urchins.html
http://www.gourmed.gr/mediterranean-diet/inseason/show.asp?i...
http://international-gourmet.net/sushi/nigiri.htm
http://www.gaijincuisine.com/sushi.html
http://www.geocities.com/thepoetdog/

Quote:
"For the brave sushi eater, uni is considered a delicacy in many parts of the world. What is actually served is the gonads of the sea urchin. Its soft texture, held in place with a band of nori, has a delicious, subtle, nut-like flavor and is a definite favorite among advanced sushi eaters."

Nut-like flavor? One would imagine so.

:lol:

JESSE - 12-13-2002 at 08:55 PM

I love uni, is a delicacy, you should try it with crackers and olive oil.

Stephanie Jackter - 12-13-2002 at 10:14 PM

I just happened to get back from eating sushi and was wondering if anybody knows what masago is? It's tasty, but I couldn't help but wonder what part of what I was eating. I don't know about the gonads of sea urchins yet, but the surimi sushi roll I just had was orgasmic. - Stephanie