The Green Line: Fishing communities need public support for conservation projects
http://www2.eluniversal.com.mx/pls/impreso/noticia.html?id_n...
By Talli Nauman
21 de agosto de 2006
Conservationists in the United States are holding up an example of Mexican community-based eco-tourism to inspire official decision-making north of
the border. It is the very same model that Baja California Sur Gov. Narciso Ag?ndez Monta?o touted in mid-August as a principle attraction of the
country and a detonator of economic diversity. It is the Magdalena Bay fishermen?s turtle protection area on the Pacific Coast of the Baja Peninsula.
Up in California, people sometimes refer to Magdalena Bay as the San Francisco Bay of the south, because of its diverse sea life and productivity. It
is one of the 10 most important wetland systems in North America. Mangroves around the bay create plankton-rich nurseries for shrimp, lobster and
swarms of pelagic red crabs that feed tuna, halibut, and squid.
This bounty is basic to the economy in the fishing villages of Puerto Adolfo Lopez Mateos, Puerto San Carlos, Puerto Magdalena and San Juanico, all in
the municipality of Comondu. But the fishing results in the illegal by-catch of marine mammals, such as dolphins and sea lions, other non-food fish,
invertebrates, and thousands of endangered sea turtles.
So last fall, dozens of concerned local fishermen became the first to ever declare their own voluntary catch-restriction reserve to protect a species
in which they have no fishing interest. They agreed not to dip their halibut gill nets and long lines below the 18-fathom level in a 1,000-square
kilometer area where loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) concentrate to forage.
At the annual loggerhead festival in Puerto Adolfo L?pez Mateos, Aug. 13, Ag?ndez said further converting the area into a federal wildlife refuge, as
proposed by the fishing communities, constitutes a viable alternative for obtaining income from visitors interested in viewing the sea turtles, just
as whale watching in the same vicinity provides substantial returns.
This support for curbing the decline of the loggerheads and other protected species is a huge reason to celebrate. But for the project to draw the
attention of the governor, it took 10 years of development and some pretty heady scientific experiments. Now even more work is needed to consolidate
the success of these efforts.
Mexico banned sea turtle killing in 1990, after all seven species were deemed in danger of extinction worldwide due to over exploitation for
commercial markets, incidental deaths in fishing, and habitat destruction. At the time, nobody even knew where Baja California ?s loggerheads came
from.
It wasn?t until 1996 that loggerheads nesting in Japan were proven to migrate from Mexico. That was the year U.S. researcher Wallace J. Nichols and
colleagues working with Mexican fishermen on the Baja Peninsula released the 223-pound Adelita with a satellite transmitter that showed the mature
female loggerhead swam straight to Japan.
The loggerhead numbers on Japan?s nesting beaches have been declining rapidly in recent decades, with the nesting female population dropping from an
earlier estimated 5,000 a year to only 1,000 in 2002. Breakthroughs in knowledge about how to protect them in Mexico have been mounting, with the help
of international foundations and organizations. They provide expertise and tools ranging from aerial surveys to satellite telemetry combined with
oceanography, from new fishing methods to educational outreach, including community workshops and festivals.
As a result, the community based sea turtle conservation network of Grupos Tortugueros has emerged, with the possibility of putting the research to
use in saving the venerable species. Japanese experts who tagged a loggerhead in 1988 to see where it migrated finally found out in 1999 that it
arrived on the shores of the Baja Peninsula. A fisherman in Puerto San Carlos had captured it in 1994 and kept the metal tag on his keychain for five
years, only revealing the find after researchers had gained trust by working closely with fishing communities.
Today, Baja fishermen know they will receive praise from their neighbors and remuneration through ecotourism if they reject the temptation of the
black market for sea turtles and opt instead for protecting them. Conservationists and academics who came to the loggerhead festival from the United
States, Japan, Spain, Uruguay, Argentina, Costa Rica and other parts of Mexico are spending the month at Magdalena Bay to promote awareness and
sustainable development activities.
They contend the California Governor?s Fish and Game Commission would lend its support to saving the turtles by creating a network of marine reserves
in the Northern Pacific Ocean that follow the pattern cut in Magdalena Bay. Mexican lawmakers could make a major contribution, too, if constituents
insist they respond to the call for an official wildlife refuge.
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