Shrimp trader joins agreement to guard sea life
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20050730-9999-1n30s...
Shrimp trader joins agreement to guard sea life
By Mike Lee
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
July 30, 2005
Under fire for allegedly supporting destructive shrimping practices, San Diego-based Ocean Garden Products Inc. has joined a pact to stop the
unintended catch of an endangered porpoise and eradicate illegal fishing in the northern Sea of Cort?s.
The landmark agreement was unveiled yesterday. It forges an unusual alliance among the United States' largest importer of Mexican shrimp; one of the
nation's biggest environmental groups, the Natural Resources Defense Council; and representatives of Mexican fisheries.
In anticipation of the shrimping season, which opens in September, the parties aim to improve the prospects of the vaquita marina porpoise and other
disappearing species while maintaining the age-old fisheries that support thousands of families.
Among the environmental protections drafted this week in Puerto Penasco, Mexico, are a ban on large-mesh gill nets, monitoring of the shrimp harvest,
and establishing a registry of legal fishermen. The accord also calls for developing ways to make the Mexican fishery more economically viable and
experimenting with less-polluting boat engines.
Some measures may be altered during and after the shrimping season based on consultation with international experts on the vaquita marina, also known
as the California gulf porpoise.
"It's really a huge step forward in terms of protection of the species and also in terms of making . . . the fishing (industry in the northern Sea of
Cort?s) operate legally," said Ari Hershowitz, a lead negotiator for the resources council.
The group launched its campaign for change in March, when it accused Ocean Garden of harming the sea's fish stocks and vaquita marinas. Fewer than 600
of the porpoises are thought to remain.
Ocean Garden defended its business but eventually agreed to hammer out the accord. Because of the company's dominance and shrimp's status as the sea's
keystone catch, the agreement is likely to influence the region's entire seafood industry.
The compact also may set the foundation for addressing other challenges, such as water pollution and rapid development of the shoreline.
"We are trying to do something that is . . . groundbreaking here," said Ocean Garden Vice President John Filose.
Ocean Garden, the resources council and the fishing leaders met Wednesday and Thursday to finalize a conceptual agreement developed in recent weeks.
The sessions were held in Mexico to make it easier for the commercial fishers to attend.
The pact's ultimate success will require additional cooperation from groups with a history of discord: fishermen, scientists, environmental groups,
and U.S. and Mexican government officials.
"Typically . . . conflict seems to be driving the campaign, and here we seem to have gone beyond that and gotten toward a common solution," said Thor
Lassen, president of Ocean Trust, a national conservation foundation funded by the fishing industry and government grants.
Filose said that this week's negotiations "got a little heated" but that participants eventually united around the goal of creating a landmark
agreement.
He praised the Mexican fishermen for staying open-minded amid a barrage of ideas from attorneys and business executives. The potential reward, as
reflected in the compact, is a homegrown industry made more efficient and prestigious because it offers premium, ecologically sound seafood.
Ocean Garden and the resources council will seek outside funds, such as low-interest loans and government money, to pay for monitoring of the
fisheries and purchases of more environmentally friendly fishing equipment.
Ocean Garden has already spent several hundred thousand dollars to implement a shrimp-tracking system for the upcoming season. It's one way to weed
out illegal shrimpers, who by some counts outnumber their legal counterparts by a 3-1 ratio.
"This is a big step in making sure we are totally positive about where our product comes from," Filose said. "It will make it . . . more difficult for
illegal people to thrive."
The company aims to recoup its costs by convincing restaurateurs to pay more for an eco-friendly product that can be traced back to the boat where it
was caught.
The 700-mile-long Sea of Cort?s, also known as the Gulf of California, is home to nearly 900 fish species. In mid-July, the United Nations' World
Heritage Committee added the sea to its global list of places with "outstanding natural value."
Shrimping and fishing are fixtures in the northern Sea of Cort?s. The region's shrimping industry includes about 1,200 two-or three-man boats, 100
large trawlers with seven-man crews, and six processing plants, Ocean Garden estimates. All told, roughly 4,500 jobs are directly dependent on
shrimping in the towns of San Felipe, Puerto Penasco and Golfo de Santa Clara.
Veteran fish and Mexican shrimp broker Michael Lindquist, owner of Aquamarine Seafood Inc. in San Diego, said the seafood industry has moved toward
environmentally friendly practices in recent years. He applauded the concepts outlined in the pact because they highlight the need for marine
conservation.
Lindquist, whose shrimp supplier is an Ocean Garden competitor, said Ocean Garden's prominence means that its practices will trickle through the
entire industry.
"It's somewhat unfortunate that this kind of commitment didn't happen 20 years ago," he said.
Environmental activists and biologists have struggled for decades to preserve the vaquita marina and prevent overfishing in the Sea of Cort?s.
In 2002, the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission said the vaquita marina's declining numbers were largely due to gill nets and trawl nets. It recommended
phasing out both types. Gill nets are set in water so that fish swimming into the mesh are entangled by the gills, while trawl nets typically are
towed along the sea floor. Both types of nets can trap the vaquita marina and other marine life.
Additional recovery methods that have been discussed in the past include using high-tech fishing gear that reduces "bycatch," making certain areas
off-limits and paying fishers to leave the industry by buying their boats.
"There is no painless solution," said a 1999 analysis of the issue by the International Committee for the Recovery of the Vaquita.
A more fundamental challenge is ensuring that current harvesting regulations are followed. "Enforcement is virtually nonexistent," said a March 2004
study written by researchers from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla and Mexican institutions.
Although the newly minted agenda is precedent-setting in the Sea of Cort?s, other areas have benefited from more environmentally friendly fishing and
shrimping practices, the resources council said.
For example, the council said it was able to reverse sharp declines in the North Atlantic swordfish population since 1997 by mounting the "first
large-scale effort to mobilize consumers in support of fish conservation."
In that campaign, the council convinced prominent chefs, cruise lines and hotels to "give swordfish a break" by removing it from their menus. The
result: new international catch limits on North Atlantic swordfish and increased protection of swordfish "nursery" areas, the council said.
Ocean Garden offers a variety of products but features shrimp, the most popular seafood in the United States. The company sells to restaurants across
the nation, including some in San Diego County. It reports handling tens of millions of pounds of seafood each year and buys the shrimp harvest from
Mexican crews.
The company, owned by the Mexican government import-export bank Bancomext, is for sale. Company executive Filose said he would be shocked if the new
owners don't continue the protection program.
"This is good business for the future of the (northern Sea of Cort?s) and Ocean Garden," he said.
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