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BajaBad
Nomad
Posts: 115
Registered: 1-30-2007
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Cool News - vigilance program to help combat over-fishing
Mike McGettigan & Sea Watch keep on doing amazing things to benefit the Sea of Cortez and all Baja inhabitants - Gringo species and other wildlife
Hereīs basic info - check Sea Watch site in the coming weeks and months for more info (www.seawatch.org)
From Mike:
"We have been very busy starting a civil society sponsored and run vigilance program. It is under the banner of "Plataforma" and is being funded in
it's first 90 days of operation by Sea Watch.The group "Plataforma" which Sea Watch helped start is now quite strong and is supported by Mexico's
largest NGO's."
"We have always felt you have to start with Vigilance and enforcement. Otherwise you start by setting up marine protected areas, marine parks,
sanctuaries, etc. and they immediately become the private fishing grounds of the strongest illegal fishermen. There are fishermen that fight (and pay)
to have the rights to fish in the protected areas."
Go Sea Watch!!
BajaBad
Relocation & Real Estate Guide: www.vivalabaja.com
Baja Blog: vivalabaja.blogspot.com
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Martyman
Super Nomad
Posts: 1904
Registered: 9-10-2004
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Good luck with this program. It is needed. Those stupid nets are everywhere!
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Dave
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6005
Registered: 11-5-2002
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Simple program to combat over-fishing
Don't eat anything from the sea...Unless you catch it.
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Russ
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6742
Registered: 7-4-2004
Location: Punta Chivato
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Thanks for re-posting Ospreys' story. I don't remember any more posts about Oscars' netting. ?
Back to Sea Watch. I went to the site and even registered with their forum. I hope it is me not being very good with computers but I didn't see any
info other than La Paz. and I'm only the second forum member and only poster. BajaBad, since you started this thread maybe you can give me an address
or two that shows something current or outside the LaPaz area the this org. is doing. What I'd really like to find is a site to report illegal
activities in and around Bahia Concepcion.
Bahia Concepcion where life starts...given a chance!
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BajaBad
Nomad
Posts: 115
Registered: 1-30-2007
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Definitely - give me a day or two to research and contact Mike.
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BajaBad
Nomad
Posts: 115
Registered: 1-30-2007
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Should have added this as well "Go Osprey".
Itīs got to start, and stop somewhere - a long, line continuum that hopefully we are all pulling together to stop at some point destructive fishing
practices and the decimation of populations of Sea of Cortez inhabitants.
BajaBad
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Cypress
Elite Nomad
Posts: 7641
Registered: 3-12-2006
Location: on the bayou
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Mood: undecided
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Thanks DENNIS, Thanks Osprey, The local guys with gill nets are killing the Sea of Cortez reef fish. The big seiners come and go, seasonal. The local
guys with gill nets are after 'em 24/7/365 days of the year. Same thing happened in the northern Gulf of Mexico till they shut 'em down. The fish have
returned and the fishing is good.
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Russ
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6742
Registered: 7-4-2004
Location: Punta Chivato
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Here's what just came in an hour or so ago (2pm). They are about a mile off the beach just off our estuary. If they have a good set there will be at
least 10 more by this evening. Happens EVERY year and they have been working the mouth of Bahia Concepcion for at least 6 weeks non-stop so far this
year!
Sorry for the lousy quality but I'm using a long lens and they're about 5 miles away.
[Edited on 6-30-2009 by Russ]
Bahia Concepcion where life starts...given a chance!
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Cypress
Elite Nomad
Posts: 7641
Registered: 3-12-2006
Location: on the bayou
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Mood: undecided
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Russ, Feel your pain! It hurts to see a fishery destroyed. My guess is it will continue for at least 2 to 3 more years. By the time the govt. guys
clamp down( if they ever do?), it'll take 3 to 5 years for the fish stocks to rebound, factoring in growth/reproductive rates etc. Good Luck!
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Russ
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6742
Registered: 7-4-2004
Location: Punta Chivato
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Cypress, I'm a bit more pessimistic than you. I'm thinking 5years for enforcement of some new laws and another 5 to recover to a moderately healthy
population level. But then 7 years ago I said Punta Chivato would have a road, water, electricity & phone. We have cell service and they took our
sign down off the highway. Most of us aren't going to pay our inflated taxes until we get at least a sign on the highway and a reevaluation of our
rates.
Bahia Concepcion where life starts...given a chance!
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flyfishinPam
Super Nomad
Posts: 1727
Registered: 8-20-2003
Location: Loreto, BCS
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Mood: gone fishin'
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We're going to partner up with Mike's program here in Loreto. I will be starting this by meeting them in La Paz after our high season ends. We're
busy this year but this is keeping me busy too.
http://www.ecoalianzaloreto.org/newsroom.html
http://www.bajabigfish.com/pescadoresvigilantes.html
http://www.loreto.com/marinepark/index.html
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Russ
Elite Nomad
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Location: Punta Chivato
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Thanks again Pam. There is a lot of reading to go over on those sites. I don't know if you or someone in one of you organizations has information on
the laws concerning netting, large and small operators, around the Bahia Concepcion area but if so I sure like a real explanation of what's what. I'd
print up a bunch and pass them around here and I'm pretty sure Nomads North and South of me would do the same. I'm not an organizer but maybe there
are some in this area that could start a ground swell. I'd like to help in someway. I'm hoping some one more eloquent than I will run with this.
Bahia Concepcion where life starts...given a chance!
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flyfishinPam
Super Nomad
Posts: 1727
Registered: 8-20-2003
Location: Loreto, BCS
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Mood: gone fishin'
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That is one of the biggest problems we have. Nobody knows the exact laws and we can't find them anywhere many have tried. Problem that I can see is
that there are so many laws and versions of these laws that nobody has them readily available. So one of the first things we're working on is getting
these laws in writing in our hands then going from there on how to change them.
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Russ
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6742
Registered: 7-4-2004
Location: Punta Chivato
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Exactly! Over the years I've heard it so many versions of what is illegal and not I don't believe there are any laws. And that seems to be how the
commercial fishers work. The only thing that seems apparent is that all boats need a specific permit. Where they fish and what is "bycatch" is a whole
other ball of crap! Enforcement..... well, that's also rolled up in that same ball.
Edit: I wanted to share part of a friends post about our dorado tourney last weekend. From DB forum:
" One thing, we had tons of seiners down there the whole two weeks and today there was a semi truck full of sardines from our area heading to the pens
off Ensenada. We spoke to the driver at a check point. They are killing the sardines off and it is out of hand!!! One of the boats saw 3 sails in the
net struggling as they died as "bycatch". Imange what it is doing to the Dorado! Later."
[Edited on 7-1-2009 by Russ]
Bahia Concepcion where life starts...given a chance!
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BajaBad
Nomad
Posts: 115
Registered: 1-30-2007
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Read one of Pamīs links: http://www.ecoalianzaloreto.org/newsroom.html
This is quoted from the article, explains things nicely I think as the situation relates to Loreto --
"Conservation regulations are in place in the Loreto National Marine Park, but there is little enforcement and insufficient resources to protect the
area. Local fishermen complain of the fleets from Sinaloa that drain the resource without permit or conscience, but there seems to be no one to stop
them. Loretano commercial and sport fishers pay fees and licenses that are not charged to those from outside areas. American sport fishers are often
overloaded with guests - and fish without permits that local charter companies are required to purchase. The system is unjust and not well managed."
"Pescadores Vigilantes is designed to address these issues. Acting as one, instead of isolated voices, is it hoped the local fisherman will be able
to increase the weight of their ideas and establish a more powerful position in the future of their industry."
Then goes on to talk about how persons can report illegal fishing annonymously so as to not fear retribution.
Thanks for the info Pam.
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Osprey
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3694
Registered: 5-23-2004
Location: Baja Ca. Sur
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Dennis, Russ, others. I was probably drunk when I wrote "the net" piece you just drudged back up. PLEASE REMEMBER I'M A FICTION WRITER. That's not me
in the story, there is no Oscar on our beach.
There are too many Oscars however. One very successful Oscar with many boats and lots of nets has permits to use them. He got them in the 1940s and no
body has been able or willing to rescind the rights given to him to take everything his nets can capture. Lets pretend one ranchero in the Visciano
pronghorn preserve had such a grandfather permit to kill as many of them as he could with poison, rifles, etc. What's wrong about the killing is not
the ranchero but the permit. The Billfish Foundation's study on the economics of selling sport fish is the biggest, best seller we ever had. Now we
need another one: a list of old, ruinous permits, what they allow, who owns them, what they pay (and who), what they are doing to the fisheries.
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Russ
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6742
Registered: 7-4-2004
Location: Punta Chivato
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Osprey, Very good point!
Bahia Concepcion where life starts...given a chance!
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Don Alley
Super Nomad
Posts: 1997
Registered: 12-4-2003
Location: Loreto
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The Wheelbarrow Man
You have your guys with the old pangas, the new pangas, the old two strokes and new government subsidized four strokes. The owners of fleets of
pangas, the owners of derelict looking old trawlers and seiners, and the millionaire owners of fleets of modern tuna boats. And then there's the
Wheelbarrow Man.
I see him from time to time in the early morning trundling down Loreto's Malecon, pushing his wheelbarrow, accompanied by his five small dogs. In his
wheelbarrow he has a large plastic garbage bag, and a sack of aluminum cans. And a bicycle pump; apparently his Truper wheelbarrow is no better than
mine in keeping air in the tire.
He slowly makes his way to the south end of the Malecon, then down along the beach in front of Hotel Oasis, heading for the mouth of the estuary.
There he parks his wheelbarrow, and with the big garbage bag he wades out into the Sea of Cortez, deeper, deeper, until he is neck deep, even tilting
his head up to keep his nose and mouth above water.
The he begins pulling a small net out of the garbage bag, slowly moving along, stringing the small gill net behind him. When the net is fully in
place, he leaves the water, shirt and long pants dripping.
Is he legal? Does anyone know, or even care? If real regulation and enforcement come to Loreto and its Marine Park, will the poorest of the fishermen,
like the Wheelbarrow Man, be the first or the last to be sanctioned?
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backninedan
Senior Nomad
Posts: 865
Registered: 3-8-2003
Location: Loreto
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Don, I doubt that wheelbarrow man has a peso for legal defence, so he will be the first to be charged with killing the environment.
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Russ
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6742
Registered: 7-4-2004
Location: Punta Chivato
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That is truly a touching story. And I really feel for people like him that eek out a simple living. Don Alley, have you also observed pangas netting
this estuary? Maybe a solution would be to limit the size of the net. Although that hasn't seemed to have worked so far. I'm sure there are equally
touching stories of pangeros that fish or use to fish with hand lines. When the big boys show up it would seem to me that the simple, honest
workers/businesses loose. WalMart, HomeDepot, CCC, Dorians, Panga fleets using nets & divers. I think that is the point here. Regulations and
enforcement to help improve the health of the fisheries and allow sustainable fisheries industry not just sportsmen and their help to a small part of
the population. Abuse needs to stop but without the help of the politicals the abuse will continue. Sorry, no more soap box for me! ~~~~~ today
Bahia Concepcion where life starts...given a chance!
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