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Author: Subject: Illegal nets
Osprey
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[*] posted on 5-7-2007 at 01:57 PM
Illegal nets


Innocence Abroad




It’s done. I went down to the beach, destroyed the nets, just drove on home, opened a beer and watched a basketball game on television. Maybe it hasn’t sunk in yet – just what I’ve done, why I did it, what might happen next. So far; no regrets.

I drove down just before nine in the morning; a slow, summer weekday – not many people. The shore fishermen leave before eight and all the fishing boats are long gone just after first light. Oscar had left his nets on the beach for two or three days, just piled up with a rusty anchor on top.

I parked my Trooper way back up on the hard-pack so there would be no tracks. I wore a bathing suit, wrapped the big bottle of acetone in a big beach towel, walked up the beach, then in the water back to the nets, emptied the corrosive stuff on both nets, left the bottle right on the pile. I retraced my steps back to the hard-pack, drove on home.

This all sounds kind of “spur of the moment” but I’ve been planning this for years. Oscar Ortiz has been using nets at or near our beach for as long as anyone can remember. It has always been a mystery to me why somebody didn’t, couldn’t stop him. He’s the only guy in East Cape who uses nets. He has an accomplice with Mexican fish and game, PESCA, in La Paz and although he’s been reported for illegally using nets by everybody and his brother (me included) scores of times, PESCA or SAGARPA show up, the next day he’s right back out there.

Lately it has been getting worse with him. One night he pulled in with five to ten green sea turtles, offloaded them to a waiting pickup that came down the beach without lights, crept out of there headed for the buyer in La Paz. A month ago, on one good night, he netted, killed and sold over a hundred baby hammerhead shark. Last week he came in with over 100 kilos of roosterfish (mostly babies). I saw him offload what surely had to be 40 kilos or more of a mixed bag made up mostly of chivato, Mexican goatfish and rayadillo, wavy-line grunt.

No other fishermen in this area use these purse nets. Even when they were legal (many moons ago) legal mesh was about four inches – Oscar’s mesh has always been 1.25 inches so he catches mostly juveniles of every stripe. Only Oscar profits – his illegal over-fishing hurts the fishing resorts, the charter boats, the bait vendors, shore fishermen, the fly-fishing tourists, the guy just trying to feed his family. When we see dead lobo, sea lions or porpoise rotting on the beach nobody thinks it’s the camarroneras, the shrimpers that scour the fruitful sandy bottoms.




He’ll surely be back out there. He’s not going to call the police; nobody’s going to report this to anybody. Oscar will just buy some new nets in La Paz and go right on as though nothing happened. Only now he knows he has to be looking over his shoulder. I hope somebody will see the mass of goo that used to be his nets, the empty bottle of acetone – it will only take one pair of eyes and it will be all over town. I will hope against hope that if and when he gets new nets, starts his old routine, somebody else will find a way to stop him. If I can’t make an end, perhaps I’ve made a beginning. I wonder if it will be worth it.

If the whole town is wrong about his lawbreaking, if he has powerful friends or money to pay them, he could report it, have me jailed or deported. Well, they’ve got to catch me first. I’m not usually the willful, reckless type – if they lock me up the whole town will turn out to tell them they’ve got the wrong man. “Jorge, he’s just an old fool. He doesn’t have it in him.”

I like to think I might have a broader world view. Perhaps they don’t appreciate the fact that one man, just one, can make a difference. Maybe they don’t see how much difference Oscar has made.
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fishbuck
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[*] posted on 5-7-2007 at 02:04 PM


Osprey, your my hero! Especially after the baby roosterfish part.



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vgabndo
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[*] posted on 5-7-2007 at 02:13 PM
TWO EARS AND THE TAIL MY FRIEND


While I fully support your "monkeywrenching" the mother, I worry about you. You didn't have to tell us, or you could have done it anonimously. The anti-environmentalist folks on this board are likely to give you crap, but I'd give you a medal.



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PEACE, LOVE AND FISH TACOS
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Barry A.
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[*] posted on 5-7-2007 at 02:17 PM


Being a "rule of law" guy, why didn't the rest of the folks along the beach howl so much that "Oscar" was arrested by the folks payed to do just that???

I will never understand this----------all the folks that did nothing are part of the problem, it seems to me. No wonder you did what you did---------you "knew" that you were right, and you were obviously frustrated.

You won't find me complaining about what you did-----in this case anyway. Each circumstance is different.

Barry
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cbuzzetti
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[*] posted on 5-7-2007 at 02:19 PM


Let me know if you need more Acetone.
Not sure how to even get it there.
Don't buy it locally.




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Cypress
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[*] posted on 5-7-2007 at 02:23 PM


Jeez Osprey! You're one brave son of a gun. :D Oscar can kiss my butt and pack as much of that illegal net up his bootie as possible. You've got lots of support from north and south of the border.:bounce::D
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Bajagypsy
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[*] posted on 5-7-2007 at 02:38 PM


Way to go Osprey, If I was there I would have helped you. The thought of all that netting makes my blood boil.:mad: To bad not more people have the guts to do what you did. I say job well done.
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Don Alley
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[*] posted on 5-7-2007 at 02:41 PM


Is this a fictional story, or a true report? Or does it matter?

I do envy the East Cape and the success it's had, even if limited, against gill nets.

Things are different in the Loreto Marine Park. The regulations governing nets are somewhat cryptic, depending on the "zone" one is in. For example, around Isla del Carmen gill netting is not allowed over rocky bottoms, and is not allowed during the months of April through August. So when a gill net is reported over a rocky reef along Carmen's shoreline in April, Park officials explain that the Management Plan allows those nets, and the netters have a permit, but that Americans are selling their yellowtail in the US. So the only response is a surge in patrols targeting gringos.

FlyfishingPam has reported on this site that the new port authorities in Puerto Escondido kicked the gillnetters out, and fishing improved dramatically. But Jose Torres told me that the netter complained to a "higher authority:" the Marine Park. The park intervened, the netting is allowed in the Management Plan, and the gill nets went back in.

So you might get a different reaction from the law if you tried destroying their nets in Loreto.

Friends sent me this pick a week ago, a gillnet off the Loreto Malecon:

gillnet.jpg - 40kB




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Capt. George
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[*] posted on 5-7-2007 at 03:01 PM


so it's Mexico...how about Abreojos is part of a world wide agreed upon biosphere and they still gill net the estero, a virtual nursery.

fuggedaboudit!

they just don't seem to realize they're stealing their children's and grandchildren's home....pennies a pound for netted fish opposed to a decent income from chartering...

At one time (when the estero had fish) it had a great number of fly in fishermen...they could get that back in spades if they just protected the estero alone...

fugedaboudit!




\"The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men\" Plato
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amir
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[*] posted on 5-7-2007 at 03:06 PM


Well done! It is good someone had the courage to give a message. To observe a wrong and not react is to approve. To take action, any action, takes courage and fortitude. If Oscar gets enough messages perhaps, we hope, it will begin to influence his thinking; if the messages cut into his profits, it might make him think harder. Prayers also work - I will start visualizing Oscar finding other, non-destructive ways to make a living...

--Amir.
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Sharksbaja
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[*] posted on 5-7-2007 at 03:11 PM
Stellar story Osprey


You once again challenged my cortex. Kudos! My feelings exactly.

George is a purveyor of wine fine literature but he's certainly no idiot. Would you put your head in a guillotine? Neither would he. :bounce:

Message received and understood. Thank you Jorge!

[Edited on 5-7-2007 by Sharksbaja]




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Natalie Ann
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[*] posted on 5-7-2007 at 03:15 PM


Jorge.... well done. ;)

Nena




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Marie-Rose
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thumbup.gif posted on 5-7-2007 at 03:38 PM


:yes::yes::yes::yes::yes:



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[*] posted on 5-7-2007 at 04:01 PM


I commend you for your actions. They are brave and noble. How many times do you think you can repeat the act before Oscar puts a low paid guard on the nets?
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[*] posted on 5-7-2007 at 04:09 PM


What little I know about nets leads me to think acetone would not damage them, and acetone would evaporate fast in east cape heat.
Did acetone work on them???
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[*] posted on 5-7-2007 at 04:21 PM


That is good advice. This is really a small world when you don't want it to be.
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[*] posted on 5-7-2007 at 04:35 PM


My fellow Nomads, Please know that Osprey is a stellar author. His writings have tickled my funny bones, peeed me off, Turned my mind to mush and Pierced my heart for years.

Sharks.... in the world of the blind, the one eyed man is king.

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DENNIS
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[*] posted on 5-7-2007 at 04:38 PM


You've got to be kidding? This was a writing excercise?
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fishbuck
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[*] posted on 5-7-2007 at 05:22 PM


Quote:
Originally posted by DENNIS
You've got to be kidding? This was a writing excercise?


Hows this for an idea?
I have a story about a superhero named Marlinman. He's half man/half marlin. He defends the Cortez from villianous poachers and polluters (and developers).
I'm not sure yet how I... um I mean he becomes half marlin but it's some kind of awful accident caused by... yep you guessed it... a gillnet.
He's assisted by his trusty side kick... okay I need some help with the side kick. Dolpinboy? Turtleteen? Octokid? Squidsquirt?




"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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DENNIS
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[*] posted on 5-7-2007 at 05:27 PM


No No No, fishbuck. You have to stick with fiction. Your story is all too believeable.
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