A little over 15 years ago, the coastal community of Altata, in Sinaloa, was left without the possibility of extracting chocolate clams, one of the most important marine resources for the local economy. The reason: an extreme deterioration of their populations.
“Maybe we took it out thinking that we would never run out of it, we entire families lived on this resource, which began to become scarce and then in one we realized that we had already run out of it,” said Yanette Castro, president of the Almejeras Cooperative Society of Santa Cruz.
Sustainable use strategies were not taken into account, Castro acknowledged. The authorities were also not present to prevent indiscriminate extraction, he added.
In Mexico, there is no legal framework to regulate the overexploitation of fishing resources, nor are recovery strategies envisaged, a situation that puts at risk the economic activity of artisanal or coastal fishermen, that is, those with the lowest income, said Esteban García-Peña, director of Fisheries Campaigns at the organization Oceana.
“The Fisheries Act is a profoundly neoliberal law because it is based on volume, it is based on productivity, it is based on giving elements to the market, but it does not guarantee either the presence of fish or the welfare of fishermen,” said the sustainability specialist.
When Esteban García-Peña talks about a neoliberal law, he points out, he means betting everything on the market.
“It's discriminatory, it discriminates against those who have the least capacity to enter the market, those who have the least capacity to compete, and those are the people with the least resources,” he said.
For Yanette Castro, Mexican authorities are not focusing on a crucial point for fishermen, the guarantee of having resources to fish this and future generations.
Last November, Oceana filed an amparo against the Chambers of Deputies and Senators, claiming the failure to update this law in accordance with the principle of progressive human rights, based on the restoration or recovery of overexploited fishing species.
Those species whose populations are deteriorating are precisely those on which artisanal fishermen depend, those with the least competitive advantages in the market, compared to large scale fisheries, García-Peña said.
According to data from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi), in Mexico there are around 213 thousand people engaged in fishing, of whom 88% are men and 12% are women.
Mexico has more than 11,000 kilometers of coastline, but the states with the highest fish production are Sonora, Sinaloa, Baja California and Baja California Sur.
Oceana carried out a Fisheries Audit, where an analysis of the social conditions of fishermen in the two states with the highest production was carried out.
“Within 3 years, 55% of fishermen in Sonora will be below the poverty line, 45% in the case of Sinaloa,” the expert explained.
This is because, in the face of overexploitation, workers in the sector have fewer and fewer fishing resources or must go deeper into the sea to obtain them, potentially increasing risks.
An analysis prepared by the civil organization Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) in conjunction with the organization Public Intelligence, published in 2019, reinforces Oceana's position, since it explains that artisanal fishing is an undervalued economic activity.
“The vast majority of the hundreds of thousands of coastal or small-scale fishermen live in precarious conditions in coastal communities, with an enormous backlog in terms of infrastructure and access to basic services such as health, education, water and drainage,” the paper reads.
The National Fisheries and Aquaculture Program 2020-2024 establishes that fishing exploitation in Mexico is concentrated on 36 species.
The demand for amparo, to which Journalism Causa Natura had access, suggests that several studies recognize that at least 40% of fishing species in Mexico are deteriorated or overexploited.
Among these species are some emblematic ones such as tuna, shrimp, huachinango, marlin and axe callus.
It also states that within the Official Mexican Standard 059-Semarnat-2010 -which protects threatened flora and fauna- species that were once fishing resources are included.
“They went through a process in which their population deteriorated or overexploited, until they were not susceptible to fishing exploitation by acquiring, mainly for reasons of population decline, the status of species at risk,” says the amparo.
The deficiencies of the Act and the lack of legislative action led the organization to take legal action.
“The General Fisheries Law is a law that contemplates the market, contemplates the actors in the fishing market, contemplates how species are managed. It regulates fishing gear, regulates permits, regulates everything surrounding the execution of fishing, but it does not regulate the existence of fish in the water,” said Esteban Gacía-Peña.
The General Law on Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture was published in 2007 and updated in 2015 and 2018, but no reform has touched the central points related to the recovery of marine resources.
On December 9, the lawsuit was accepted by the sixth District Court based in Mexico City. The next step is an evaluation and release of the evidence presented, so that the judge can determine whether to protect the complaining party. In this case, no provisional or definitive suspension was granted, since it is not possible to stop legislative activities.
Violated rights
The application for amparo emphasizes the articles it considers unconstitutional, as they represent a violation of the rights of fishermen and those of collective interest.
One of the highlights are environmental services. Oceana argues that the General Law on Sustainable Forest Development, the National Waters Act and the General Wildlife Law protect “environmental services”, to guarantee the right to a healthy environment, through their regulation and instruments and mechanisms.
Environmental services, he says, are the benefits of all kinds that nature and natural resources grant to human beings, by providing the necessary conditions for the development of life. The impairment of these, therefore, represents a violation of the right to a healthy environment.
However, it should be noted, the Fisheries Act does not contemplate limiting the exploitation, use or exploitation of natural fishing resources, and its purpose does not include restoration or more in-depth measures in this regard, such as a restoration program, with actions such as monitoring and control of fish populations, refuge areas, among others.
With regard to articles 26 and 27 of the Act, which regulate the Mexican Fund for Fisheries and Aquaculture Development, he says that its operating rules do not contemplate promoting the restoration of fishing resources and key ecosystems.
“For practical purposes, once a fishing species deteriorates or overexploits, it will remain so,” says the amparo.
Coastal fishing and food security
The president of the Almejeras de Santa Cruz Cooperative Society asserted that, despite the quality of the product offered by artisanal fishermen, there is no economic security for the sector.
On the one hand, brokerage companies account for most of the profits, while, on the other hand, factors such as illegal fishing, overexploitation, destruction of refuge habitats and global warming call into question the future of this activity.
In 2018, the United Nations Food Organization (FAO) published Voluntary Guidelines for achieving the sustainability of small-scale fisheries, in the context of food security and the eradication of poverty.
According to the report, small-scale fishing accounts for almost half of global catches and is relevant considering that most of these catches are directed to direct human consumption.
One of the Guidelines states that States and all those involved in fisheries management must adopt measures for the conservation and long-term sustainable use of fishery resources and to ensure the ecological base of food production.
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