Fishermen in El Manglito, one of the founding neighborhoods of the city of La Paz, Baja California Sur, found aquaculture and tourism as an alternative to regenerate fish resources that have been overexploited.
Since 2016, fishermen have been grouped into the Organization of Fishermen Rescuing the Ensenada (OPRE), which merged 15 pre-existing cooperatives and 10 free fishermen, who together currently number around one hundred fishermen. They are working on a concession of 2,048 hectares for the restoration of 11 resources within the La Paz cove, a coastal lagoon in the southern part of La Paz Bay.
This was one of the first aquaculture concessions for restoration in Mexico, whose objective was to restore the callo population until monitoring indicates that it is feasible to exploit it again.
“We came together with the objective of caring for and protecting these species to give them sustainable use, good management, changing the history of fishing we used to care for and protect the fishery, but also the environment,” said Hubert Méndez, secretary of the OPRE Board of Directors.
History of axe callus regeneration
Axe tripe, rice clams and chocolate caught in the cove of La Paz. Source: Daniela Reyes.
The Manglito fishermen who founded La Paz had their source of income in front of their homes in La Paz Bay where they found a great abundance of fishing resources, but as they ran out, they had to go further and further afield to fish. First they went to Espíritu Santo Island, to San José Island and even went to Loreto.
“We actually had a paradise in this area that we had not been able to take advantage of, which is the axe callus, and the Catarina clam, the latter of which became extinct due to overexploitation and natural phenomena,” said Hubert.
In 2011, fishermen conducted a census where they counted 60,000 specimens of axe callus. At that time, they undertook not to fish for the species to let it recover and to implement actions to clean the cove of La Paz and to monitor resources. They also learned to plant them in areas where they have greater protection.
“We built a vision of what we wanted to achieve and step by step we built this future for ourselves,” said Hubert.
For six years they did not extract the resource and they noticed a remarkable recovery, for example, in 2015 they registered almost five million copies.
However, in 2017, an invasive species arrived that killed almost 90% of axe calluses and although at the moment its spread is controlled and they have managed to recover a population of one million two hundred specimens of calluses in 2025, they are venturing into other activities so as not to depend economically on one species and a single activity.
“(The tunicate) slapped us very hard but the truth was on the one hand it was good because we started to diversify. We already had a story, a clean cove and we thought about sightseeing and we also began to learn and innovate with aquaculture. We realized that we can't depend on a single species,” Hubert said.
Diversify to sustain restoration
To lower the pressure on axe callus and reduce economic dependence on this resource, OPRE fishermen began an unknown path exploring aquaculture and tourism.
“We felt that it was an enormous need because we wanted to diversify OPRE's resources and not just hit the axe call, which is also four months of work and then it's just monitoring, but watching doesn't make us a profit,” said Guillermo Méndez, member of OPRE and Hubert's brother.
He has led the oyster farming initiative within OPRE and has trained with Sol Azul, a company dedicated to oyster farming in the San Ignacio Lagoon, in the northeast of Baja California Sur.
OPRE has received donations of pleasure oyster and Japanese oyster seeds, and they have discovered that oyster farming is possible in the cove of La Paz. So far they have had three oyster crops with good survival. For example, from the seed donation they received in June 2025, they obtained a survival of 66%, Guillermo said.
Currently, there are no other oyster farming projects that have thrived in the Gulf of California, as most of the projects are in the Pacific Ocean. However, oyster cultivation is promising and OPRE is thinking of scaling soon to 50 or 100 thousand cultivated species and diversifying the species they cultivate.
“We want to continue and we even want to cultivate axe callus, brown and red chocolate clams so that there is more work,” Guillermo said.
Hubert giving tourists a tour of La Paz Bay. Source: Daniela Reyes
After all the work of restoring the axe callus and thinking of other alternatives to make the restoration sustainable, they ventured into tourism.
Three years ago, OPRE fishermen launched Manglitour, the cooperative's tour operator. What sets them apart from the rest of the tourist offer is that their tours consist of telling the story of their community and OPRE while visiting emblematic places of the restoration they are doing in the cove of La Paz.
“The first thing that came to mind was tourism, but a tourism of taking people to the farm to remove their oysters or axe callus and then prepare them for eating with their table and chairs on the beach,” Guillermo said.
Thus, on board a boat they take groups of tourists to share their history, their anecdotes, their territory and they accompany them to live the experience of harvesting their own food. While along the way there may be encounters with dolphins, turtles and bird watching as well.
Their goal is that with diversification and letting the callus rest for another three years, they can recover the almost five million they had in 2015, or even reach twelve million.
A model under construction
OPRE fishermen are an example of regenerative aquaculture, according to Andrew Rhodes, director of Public Relations and Policy at Alumbra Innovations, which has funded some OPRE projects.
“They do aquaculture with good practices and at the same time they are regenerating the environment. It's a bet on how we can detonate economically viable models that restore nature, honor communities and provide prosperity,” Rhodes said.
OPRE fishermen are testing what alternatives work best for them and building that model that allows them to maintain a balance in their relationship with the sea and their way of life.
“Honestly, for me it's not a project, for me this is a living story where the community of El Manglito is not only restoring an ecosystem and species but also the relationship we have with the sea, and this is what this is all about, intertwining hearts and focusing them on the cove,” said Hubert.
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