The National Aquaculture and Fisheries Commission (Conapesca) is working on a project to increase monitoring from 164 to 1,200 smaller vessels, Rear Admiral José Treviño Núñez, director general of Inspection and Surveillance of the agency, told Causa Natura.
“The monitoring system that we have monitors all the larger vessels. All those that are scale, shrimp and tuna are monitored by our systems. Our Achilles' heel are the smaller boats. Of the existing census of registered smaller vessels, only 164 boats are being monitored,” Treviño explained.
The biggest challenge facing authorities is monitoring smaller vessels. A need that the official described as “pressing”. In the country there are 77,483 vessels, of which 2,027 are larger and the rest are smaller (75,456), he said.
Thus, Conapesca is in the process of presenting a project that seeks to expand from the 164 it already monitors in Playa Bagdad, Tamaulipas, to 1,200 the number of smaller vessels monitored.
Just over half of the new vessels to be monitored will be in the Upper Gulf of California and the rest in the Gulf of Mexico on the border with the United States.
Upper Gulf of California
The Rear Admiral noted that today there are between 600 and 700 vessels in the Upper Gulf of California that are not being monitored.
“We need to monitor these vessels to give greater certainty to that agreement (which prohibits fishing gear, systems, methods, techniques and schedules). And we don't have the resources or the means to monitor them right now, so we're already in the process of doing market studies to see what the costs of monitoring those vessel populations would be,” he said.
Federal officials from Conapesca have found differences with fishing cooperatives in the Upper Gulf of California when it comes to carrying out their tasks, the official said.
“Because they have always been natural fishing areas for them, and because those limitations have been established there, they feel affected, but really the benefit is for the good of the area,” he said.
Plan of action
Before the end of the year, Conapesca is committed to taking a leap from the current vessel monitoring system to a real-time one, in accordance with the Application Plan for the Zero Tolerance Zone and the Refuge Area for the Protection of the Marine Vaquita, in the Upper Gulf of California.
“Real time as such doesn't exist. There is a latency between the signal sent to the receiver, or the transceiver to the satellite, when the signal reaches the database, and is presented on a screen. There is probably a latency of minutes, of seconds, but it is also the case that having constant real time increases service costs a lot. That's why boat positioning signals can be received every 5, 10, 30, 60 minutes,” Treviño explained.
The most expensive part of the monitoring service is the satellite signal, which requires a certain bandwidth depending on the number of vessels to be monitored.
“The intention is to monitor as constantly as possible in order to identify the vessels that are in the area and for that we are already working with the technical annex and with the needs that are needed to be able to carry out this monitoring. We are doing a market study of who are the main companies that offer this service. We are coordinating and collaborating with SEMAR (Secretariat of the Navy) to see the possibility that, in the development part of SEMAR and the Computer Communications part of SEMAR, they will support us so that we can develop a platform and use Mexican satellites to carry out this monitoring,” said the rear admiral.
Support with SEMAR
In March 2020, members of the Morena caucus in the Chamber of Deputies submitted a proposal for a bill to transfer inspection and surveillance powers in fisheries matters from Conapesca to SEMAR.
For his part, Treviño noted that the legal areas of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (SADER), Conapesca and SEMAR are working on proposals for legal changes, without making any reference to a link with what was presented in the Chamber, or to a transfer of responsibilities.
“In coordination with SEMAR, we are also working so that it can make the necessary reforms to the fishing law to give SEMAR officers greater legal certainty. We have to be able to address the problems of the sector,” said Treviño.
In February 2019, SADER and SEMAR concluded a Framework Collaboration Agreement on Inspection and Surveillance; and later, in April 2020, both agencies signed an agreement to deter illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.
Treviño explained that SEMAR assists Conapesca in different operations, in which federal officers from Conapesca embark on naval units to carry out maritime surveillance and receive support from the Marine Corps for land surveillance.
“While it is true, they do not yet have (the elements of SEMAR) the legal figure to act as a federal fishing officer, they act as mirrors in support and provide security in the actions that are being carried out,” said the rear admiral.
The actions carried out together respond to operational plans to address critical areas. Thus, SEMAR has trained 56 officers, distributed along the coasts that support Conapesca's officers, he explained.
Maritime intelligence
In addition, the assistance also includes maritime port intelligence, where foreign vessels that could carry out illegal fishing in Mexico's exclusive economic zone are monitored.
Until today, Conapesca has no record of boats from other countries carrying out illegal fishing.
“Obviously, through the means available, we haven't detected anything, but we're also aware that we can't rule out that this activity could happen, or that it's happening,” Treviño said.
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