Fishery Improvement Projects are committed to sustainable production in Mexico

Seaspiracy, the Netflix documentary released at the end of March, received both applause and criticism when questioning the sustainability of fishing. In 90 minutes, director Ali Trabizi takes a tour of the pollution of the seas; he affirms that sustainability labels such as Dolphin Safe cannot guarantee safe consumption for the marine species; he talks about slavery and the working conditions of fishermen, illegal fishing, among other topics.

Faced with these problems, Seaspiracy's answer to saving the oceans is to stop consuming marine species.

“We believe in the right to choose what we eat and we applaud those who choose to improve the health of our planet. However, giving up fish consumption is not a realistic choice for hundreds of millions of people around the world who depend on coastal fishing grounds and who, in many cases, face poverty, hunger and malnutrition,” the organization Oceana shared in a statement about the documentary.

According to figures from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), there are more than 30 million people in the world who are engaged in fishing. About 88%, more than 151 million tons of the 171 million of total fish production, are used for direct human consumption.

For FAO, as well as dozens of environmental organizations, sustainability is a more necessary option than betting on limiting consumption.

Greenpeace defines sustainable fishing as fishing that can be maintained indefinitely without compromising the life of the target species and without having a negative impact on other species within the ecosystem, including people.

Given this scenario, fishing practices currently have certifications, eco-labels and qualification standards. A process that is carried out partially but effectively, experts agree.

“In order to be able to take care of the resource, you can't tell the fisherman that starting today he will fish less than 10 kilos, because he will hardly say yes when he sees that his neighbor, who does not have permits, who does not pay taxes, fishes 20 kilos and also with prohibited fishing gears,” explains Minerva Alonso, director of the Center for Sustainable Development and Fisheries (CEDEPesca) in Mexico, who work with three Fishery Improvement Projects (FIP).

The FIPs and the challenges of sustainability

One of the commitments to sustainable fishing are the FIPs. Voluntary and collective initiatives, where producers, authorities, researchers, organizations, and others work to improve the operation of a fishery through the least possible negative impact.

In Mexico, three of the fastest growing eco-labels and fishing standards are those promoted by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), Seafood Watch at the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Fair Trade USA.

According to the Fishery Progress website, there are 26 FIP records in Mexico where different species are being worked with different species such as red and black grouper in Yucatán, spiny lobster in Quintana Roo or clams in Sinaloa.

Each FIP is in a different state depending on the indicators they meet. The indicators depend on three principles of the MSC: the health of fish stocks, the impact on ecosystems and the effective management of fisheries.

In the country, there are 13 that have an exhaustive status, that is, they carry out activities that affect all the indicators. While the other 13 have a basic status, this means that they conform to certain MSC indicators.

“Each project has different needs and therefore different activities. At the national level, from my point of view, the biggest problem is inspection and surveillance in relation to governance issues [...] because it is possible that you can get a fisherman to be willing to follow the laws, to collaborate, to take care of his space, but it is very difficult for someone to be willing to take care of the future seeing that his neighbor continues to act illegally”, explains Minerva Alonso.

Fishing with knowledge

Mexico is vulnerable to illegal fishing and practices that harm the environment. This is due to its coastal extension and the composition of its fishing fleet, EDF points out in the report “Illegal and irregular fishing in Mexico: a barrier to competitiveness”.

In addition, legal fishermen do not know if the species being fished are at risk and what kind of impact they have. For this reason, Minerva Alonso believes that information is needed, which she still considers to be inaccessible. The FIPs also work with awareness-raising workshops to promote spaces for self-reflection that allow us to understand that it is a joint work.

“The information is not up to date and is not strong enough. There are many researchers who generate very good information, but the organization is very fractured, evaluations are not constant [...] all actors are required to participate actively in decision-making,” says director Alonso.