gringorio - 6-18-2004 at 06:55 AM
by Luke Turf in the Tucson Citizen:
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/index.php?page=local&story_id=0...
Sea of Cortez: Overfishing is culprit for vanishing sea life
Luke Turf
Tucson Citizen
GUAYMAS, SON. - The Sea of Cortez is in danger.
Divers and scientists here say they're seeing fewer big fish, shark and turtles in the waters Jacques Cousteau once called the "aquarium of the
world." Captains and fishermen, too, say their catches are smaller.
It's all part of a global overfishing phenomenon that has devastated the world's big fish populations, according to a recent study of fishing records
dating to the industry's boom in the 1950s.
"No matter where you look in the world, on average, 90 percent of the fish are gone," said Ransom Myers, the biologist from Dalhousie University in
Canada who analyzed the records.
It's no surprise to Tucson sport fishermen who seek big fish such as marlins and mahi-mahi on weekend escapes to the Sea of Cortez, also known as the
Gulf of California. Nor is it surprising to Mexican fishermen living on these shores who depend on their catch for survival.
Both see the impact of a disappearing world.
"So far, no extinctions, yet," said retired UA marine biology/oceanography Professor Donald A. Thomson, who has studied the Sea of Cortez since 1963.
"But it'll eventually happen unless we do something about it."
Concern for the sea has grown so much that this week - from yesterday through Thursday - in Tucson, 350 experts are participating in the largest ever
Gulf of California conference.
Fishermen, divers and scientists aside, declining fish populations here lead to other problems ranging from seafood prices to illegal immigration.
"Overfishing makes it more difficult for future generations to eat fish," Thomson said. "They're depleting a natural resource and it may not be able
to come back."
Though some fishing techniques used in Mexico are banned or tightly controlled in the United States because of their potential to harm ecosystems, the
catch often still winds up on our plates, feeding a growing appetite for seafood. From 2001 to 2002, Americans' per-capita consumption of seafood rose
7.1 percent, to 15.6 pounds.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's statistics, almost 900 million pounds of fish products caught in Mexico were shipped to the United
States from 1999-2003. More than 317 million pounds were shrimp.
Longlines, often stretching more than a mile with hundreds of hooks, nab marlin, mahi-mahi, swordfish, sea birds and endangered sea turtles. Along
with turtles, marine mammals such as sea lions, dolphin and even whales get caught and killed in gill nets.
Mexican fishermen here use gill nets, which are banned or tightly regulated in the United States, and longlines, which were recently banned in
California, according to Brendan Cummings, a lawyer with the Center for Biological Diversity.
While 41-year-old Mexican fisherman Mario Cordoba's nets and hooks are cast in search of sea bass and bottom fish, if he catches a turtle, he can sell
it for more than three times what he gets for fish, he said.
Turtles on the black market sell for $300 or more depending on their size, Cordoba said. Though he knows turtle populations are declining, Cordoba
said if he's not catching fish he has to keep turtles for profit.
When he wasn't catching anything, Cordoba said, he worked at a bakery in the United States.
Alongside small fishing vessels like Cordoba's are shrimp boats.
Huge boards scrape the ocean's floor for shrimp and kill hundreds of other underwater species - many not consumed by humans - in their shrimp nets.
Shrimpers, using the same techniques as those from the United States, catch about 400 species of sea life while shrimping and only about 200 of those
are consumed by humans, said Peggy Turk of the Intercultural Center for the Study of Deserts and Oceans in Rocky Point. Another 200 species not
consumed are killed, robbing the ocean of its diversity, she said.
Mexico's Fishery Chamber of Commerce President Leon Tissot represents the interests of about 400 shrimpers. Tissot said fish caught while trawling for
shrimp outweigh the shrimp caught by 6 to 1. Other estimates range as high as 10 to 1.
Of the almost 80 million pounds of shrimp imported to the United States from Mexico annually, Tissot said, about half are farm-raised and half caught
in the Sea of Cortez, the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico.
Tissot estimates 240 million pounds of other species are caught while harvesting the 40 million pounds of shrimp caught in the seas. Turk estimates
it's more like 400 million pounds.
"We damage the bottom, it's true. But we're researching better devices, more friendly to the bottom," Tissot said.
The depletion of fish in the Sea of Cortez means fewer fish to catch and fewer sharks, turtles, whales and sea lions to watch.
Less marine life means fewer jobs in tourism in Mexico for people such as Cesar Ortega, who was born on these shores 56 years ago. Ortega makes a
living off the sea, as did his father and his father's father.
Ortega, who operates a charter fishing business, has seen more vessels fishing these waters and fewer fish caught every year.
"Twenty to 30 years ago everything: marlins, sailfish, turtles, everything. Now, nothing. No more turtles. No more sailfish," Ortega said. "Five or 10
years more, you come here, no fish, absolutely."
Fewer fish to catch also means more Mexican fishermen such as Felicardo Felix will sneak into the United States to find work. Felix said he illegally
crossed the border in Calexico to pick grapes four times because fish were not biting.
Ten of Felix's fellow fishermen are living illegally in the United States, he said. He expects more to follow.
When times are tough, Felix said, he makes less than $50 a week selling fish and fish tacos out of his crate-and-tarp home on the shore. Felix said he
caught about 3,300 pounds of fish every day when he came here in 1987.
"Now sometimes we don't get anything," Felix said of his recent record lows of 30 to 40 pounds.
Fishermen such as Felix used to cast their nets and lines for shark. But shark catches now are rare, said Carlos Villavicencio, a shark specialist
with the Autonomous University of Baja California South in La Paz.
Hammerhead sharks used to swarm in schools of 50 or more within sight of about 1 in every 3 scuba tours Tucsonan Mike Huhn led when he got into the
business 25 years ago.
"Oh my God, 25 years ago it was unbelievable here. You could sit on a rock and the fish would come to you," Huhn said. "The problem is the number (of
fish) . . . is continuously dropping off."
Huhn, 45, owns a scuba diving and charter fishing business here and in Tucson, where it's known as Desert Divers. He hasn't seen a shark on a dive in
three years.
American John Brakey blames the disappearing fish and marine life on the growing appetite for seafood. Brakey is executive director of Amigos del Mar
de Cortes/Friends of the Sea of Cortez, a binational group based here and in Tucson.
"Mexico's drug problem is us (the United States). We're the consumers," he said. "Well, it's the same with the fish."
Endangered species in the Sea of Cortez include:
Greater Black sea turtle
Hawksbill sea turtle
Giant Leatherback sea turtle
Olive Ridley sea turtle
Loggerhead sea turtle
Totoaba, fish that grows up to 6 feet and up to 300 pounds
Vaquita, one of five species of porpoise in the world
Humpback whale
Blue whale
Fish in danger of being overfished in the Sea of Cortez:
Mahi-mahi (also known as Dorado)
Swordfish
Marlin
Yellowtail
Sailfish
Manta ray
Of the 400 shark species in the world, about 150 live in the Sea of Cortez. At least eight are in danger of being killed off by shark fishing or
finning, or both including:
Hammerhead shark
Blue shark
Bull shark
Sand shark
Tiger shark
Mako shark
Great White shark
Thresher shark
*Source: Amigos del Mar de Cortes/Friends of the Sea of Cortez
bajalou - 6-18-2004 at 08:30 AM
I'll have to try and find the article I read in the last couple days stating that the reduction or elimination of water from the Colorado River has
produced a decline of fish or major portions. Another problem - not to minimize the over-fishing situation.
