During 2021, 47,219 possible shrimp trawling spots were detected in Mexico in restricted or prohibited areas. These are satellite signals that reflect the frequency with which boats enter these areas at a speed, depth and position that suggests that they are fishing.
An analysis carried out by the Natural Cause Data Unit located these points based on Satellite Vessel Monitoring data (VMS records), permits and arrival notices, which must normally carry tall vessels.
Although it is not possible with the data to confirm the amount of fishing of these vessels, these signals that the boats send every hour show possible fishing behaviors in Marine Protected Areas (for this report they are only considered core areas although there are other restricted areas depending on each management plan); protection zones in fishing shelters, river mouths, lagoons and estuaries; and in the first 5 fathoms of depth.
But while the data reflect a risk landscape, in these places each fisherman complements his own version.
On the shores of the Gulf of Ulloa there is a silent battle. In this region of northwestern Mexico, which runs from El Delgadito, municipality of Mulegé, to Cabo San Lázaro, municipality of Comondú, in Baja California Sur, coastal fishermen who use small-scale pangas work in the same waters as those of industrial vessels, so disagreements have arisen over different forms of work.
We know the enormous damage that industrial ships do near the coast. They kill a lot of turtles, explains Wendy Higuera, a coastal fisherwoman in Cabo San Lázaro.
Wendy is originally from Puerto Adolfo López Mateos, also located in the municipality of Comondú. Her family has been dedicated to fishing for decades, and she herself clarifies that she belongs to the third generation of fishermen.
His main area of work is Cabo San Lázaro, where he runs a fishing cooperative that catches scale, octopus and crab.
When Wendy talks about turtle deaths, she refers to shrimp boats trapping them and drowning them in their nets. This phenomenon known as bycatch is common in trawling, where large nets are dropped to the seabed and capture everything in their path, not just the target species, which is shrimp. Its impacts are such that this has become an environmental problem.
Right now (trawlers) are being justified in entering (the shelter) with the use of excluders, but even today there are boats that don't bring them or that those that bring and still catch turtles, explains the fisherwoman.
As part of prevention measures, since 2016, the Gulf of Ulloa has been classified as a fishing refuge area, a tool established by the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Commission (Conapesca) to recover species populations.
In this case, the endangered loggerhead turtle is protected, but also other commercially valuable turtles affected by overexploitation, such as sharks, rays, clams, lobster, shrimp, crab, snails, crab, octopus and sea cucumber.
The biggest problem is that right now we have the ships dragging right here in front of us, inside the shelter and no one says anything to them, Wendy points out.
Although trawling is not prohibited throughout the fishing refuge of the Gulf of Ulloa, its establishment agreement published in the Official Gazette of the Federation (DOF) indicates that there is a “Specific Area of Fishing Restrictions”, the closest to the coast, where the use of trawls cannot be allowed.
A similar measure occurs in Mexico's Marine Protected Areas, which are another category for ecosystem protection, where core zones are established within these areas and activities, such as trawling, that endanger conservation are prohibited.
However, in the analysis of Causa Natura data, the Gulf of Ulloa is ranked first of the 11 zones in Mexico in terms of the highest frequency of VMS signals with trawling characteristics in restricted areas during 2021.
At the site, 9,056 possible fishing spots were identified by 59 boats.
The Natural Cause analysis names them as possible irregularities since these data are indicating only the behavior that the fleets followed.
To be confirmed as an irregularity, there should be an administrative sanction issued by agencies such as Conapesca or the Federal Environmental Attorney's Office (Profepa), but this is not something that always happens.
Vessel Incursions in Restricted Areas
Source: Natural Cause Data Unit Analysis.
After the Gulf of Ulloa, the sites with the highest frequency of these signals are found in areas of importance in the Official Mexican Standard NOM-002-SAG/PESC-2013 such as Agiabampo, in the states of Sonora and Sinaloa, with 3,556 fishing spots for 152 boats; Kino Bay, Sonora, with 2,219 points for 93 boats; and the La Encrucijada Protected Natural Area, in Chiapas, with 682 fishing spots for 54 boats.
Another relevant case because it is the refuge area for the vaquita marina in the Upper Gulf of California, in northern Mexico, reflects six possible fishing spots corresponding to four boats.
Although there are only thirteen, the VMS data cannot infer the amount of fishing that has been done.
Faced with this scenario, trawlers are responsible for the data and signs of coastal people in the Gulf of Ulloa. One is Oscar Valdez, an industrial fisherman from the state of Jalisco, who currently lives in Guaymas, Sonora.
Valdez has a small industrial vessel company dedicated to the hauling of shrimp. Both he and other fishermen from Sonora and Sinaloa have taken their fleets to the Gulf of Ulloa.
The Gulf of Ulloa is the working area of the shrimp (industrial) fleet, but it creeps away from the coast, usually 15/20 fathoms deep out, argues Valdez.
According to the fisherman, the reasons why boats do not enter the coast are the drop in catch due to overexploitation in the last 10 years and the excess of fishermen, both coastal and industrial, since it is a region where the majority of residents and visitors depend on the fishing sector.
Despite this, the fisherman recognizes that he cannot speak for everyone and that irregularities exist, but he also represents a risk to his work.
“I can't deny that maybe some people take risks (entering the shelter's restricted zone), I never did it because the networks don't work (they work),” he says.
“On the west coast of Baja California Sur, because it is open sea, the crest of the wave is very high, as it approaches the coastline it causes the ship to rise. This causes the equipment to suffer a strong pull and the tension of the drag cables causes the nets to rise from the bottom, so that they do not work. This is maximized when working at a shallow depth. From 15 fathoms deep onwards, this effect is lost, due to the length of the drag cable”, he adds.
Despite the fact that fishing in restricted areas represents a problem of important fishing and environmental importance, these effects represent 2.17% of shrimp trawling, according to the analysis of the Causa Natura data team.
The rule of five fathoms
“We all break the law on the high seas,” says Noé Aranzubia, a coastal fisherman from the municipality of Navolato, in Sinaloa, in northwestern Mexico.
Noé has been fishing shrimp with suriperas for more than 30 years. These are fishing gears for shallow waters, such as estuaries and bays, considered a sustainable alternative to trawling, mainly because they are more selective, which means that there is less incidental fishing.
However, off the coast of Sinaloa, the state with the highest fish production in the country, regulations for shrimp fishing are left out of the way in daily work.
We respect closed times when you can't fish, but when the ban is lifted we shouldn't catch within 5 fathoms. We do this because otherwise we wouldn't have a product, deep-sea fishermen are there day and night and they also come to the coast, Noé explained.
Catching in the first 5 fathoms (a depth of less than 9.14 meters) is a rule established in NOM-002-SAG/PESC-2013, which prohibits the use of trawls within the first 9.14 meters deep.
According to the Official Standard, fishing with trawls has a negative impact on the population of juvenile or reproductive species, including shrimp.
But in Mexico, this is one of the possible irregularities that occurs the most, being present in 9.77% of the fishing spots identified when catching shrimp.
During 2021, on the coast of Sinaloa, 96 companies that own 298 boats were reflected in 25,711 possible fishing spots within the first 5 fathoms, according to data analyzed by Causa Natura.
Sinaloa is followed by the neighboring state of Sonora, with 107 companies that own 186 boats that incurred 5,312 possible fishing spots. While the third place is occupied by Baja California, also in the north of the country, with 32 companies responsible for 64 boats that committed 1,783 trawling points.
Although the VMS data do not allow us to identify the amount of catch, it can be inferred that there is fishing intensity, so their frequency considers them areas of vulnerability.
2022
2021
Among the companies detected with possible fishing activity in unauthorized areas are Pesquera Axel, S.A. de C.V.; Pesca Integra de Altamar, S.A. de C.V.; Pesquera Jusajeli, S.A. de C.V.; Operadora Marítima del Pacifico, S.A. de C.V.; and Pesca Mar y Sola, S.A. de C.V.
For their part, some industrial fishermen point out that the irregularities do not only affect the shrimp fleet of large vessels that, unlike coastal pangas, are monitored by satellite, but also to a problem of review by the authorities, both for regulated and illegal fishing.
Measures and options
Looking towards future solutions, the Gulf of Ulloa is a reflection of the different positions that are developing around incursions into restricted areas.
In addition to dedicating her days to fishing, Wendy Higuera has been involved for two years in awareness-raising campaigns to achieve the ANP decree in the area, an initiative proposed by the organization Beta Diversity, whose objective is to keep deep-sea anglers away.
The ANP would have the category of Biosphere Reserve and would extend from the Guerrero Negro area, in the municipality of Mulegé, to Cabo San Lucas.
One of the reasons why I was motivated to support the creation of the Reserve is to be able to remove ships from our shores so that our production also increases, explains Wendy.
For her, the important thing is that coastal fishermen can continue fishing and generate alternatives for sustainable tourism and productive projects. For this reason, he is currently involved in awareness-raising days so that fishermen know what having an ANP would represent.
For his part, for Oscar Valdez, as an industrial fisherman, the measures to solve the problems are not in creating more restricted areas but in giving an order to both deep-sea and coastal fishing.
“I think the big problem is not in the offshore shrimp fleet, but in the disorder that exists in coastal fishing. There are so many boats, dealers and illegals that fish all year round and that way it's not possible (to work),” he says.
He adds that trawlers have thought about updating the Fisheries and Aquaculture Act to really be able to work together and that all tools, whether fishing shelters or ANP, meet their objectives and avoid fishing in restricted areas.
*This report had a modification of the satellite data published on March 7, 2023, after an adjustment to the speed range of the vessels (considering the range of 1.4 to 3.5 knots/hour as suitable for fishing and reflected in fishing spots).
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