It's 5 in the morning in Puerto Peñasco, Sonora, located on the northern Pacific coast of Mexico. The seawater tinged black by the darkness of the early morning contrasts with the orange tones of the dawn, as well as with the lights of the shrimp trawler that sails in the area.
On the floor of the boat there is a dolphin turtle that has been detected in fishing nets, which was disentangled and now flaps towards the shore.
“Right now we are releasing a chelonium (turtle) weighing 40 or 50 kilos,” says one of the fishermen, who does not go on camera but records with his cell phone his companion who lifts the turtle and throws it back into the sea.
“We are not predators... We have to do things right, that little animal deserves to live,” he says as the turtle gets lost in the water.
Golfina, like caguama, lora, tortoise, lute and verde are six of the seven species of sea turtles in the world that reach the shores of Mexico every year. To achieve this, they avoid poachers, tons of garbage, destruction of their habitats and fishing nets where they can be trapped and die.
These threats have caused all turtles that reach Mexican waters to be classified as endangered species, according to the NOM-059-SEMARNAT-2010 responsible for identifying flora and fauna at risk in the country.
The video of the release of the golfin turtle in Puerto Peñasco was circulated among fishermen on WhatsApp with the intention of raising awareness about the use of Turtle Excluding Devices (DETs).
DETs are part of the technologies that have been implemented in several countries for trawling, such as the type of fishing in which huge nets are used that fall to the sea floor and capture everything in their path.
These devices are placed in the nets and have an opening through which marine fauna can escape and thus avoid bycatch.
In the case of Mexico, they are used in industrial boats that carry out shrimp trawling, one of the main productive activities in the northwest of the country and, in turn, one of the threats to turtles.
But contrary to the expected results, the lack of coordination and budget has impacted surveillance, causing a decrease in the number of inspectors, tours and training needed to ensure the proper use of DETs.
The figure represents an increase of 1,108% compared to the limit of 90 dead specimens per year allowed by the North Pacific Marine and Regional Ecological Management Program (POEM).
(No) surveillance
“When I started out, there were no DETs. Initially, it was like a pilot plan in which the federal government made us understand that it was necessary to use them to take care of the species,” recalls Marco Antonio García, a fisherman in Puerto Peñasco, Sonora.
Marco Antonio has been dedicated to fishing for 35 years. He has spent more than half his life at sea, mainly catching shrimp with trawls.
Over the past decade, the Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection (Profepa), responsible for environmental law enforcement, has issued more than 4,300 certifications for the use of Turtle Excluding Devices in 10 of the 17 coastal entities, according to transparent information provided for this report.
Its use is mandatory in offshore shrimp fishing under NOM-002-SAG/PESC-2013. A certificate can cover several DETs and can only be endorsed by Profepa.
For their monitoring, authorities such as Profepa and the head of fisheries, the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Commission (Conapesca), carry out training courses with fishermen to advise them on installation and management, as well as inspection and surveillance tasks on land and sea to verify their use. Activities to which the Secretariat of the Navy (Semar) has joined.
For us in this part of Puerto Peñasco, which is practically one step away from the Upper Gulf of California Protected Natural Area, where there is a problem of conserving the vaquita marina, the three government institutions have been intervening for several years, explains Marco Antonio Garcia.
However, despite more than 4,000 certified boats, since 2012 to date, Profepa has only a record of DET inspections in 5 entities: Baja California Sur, Sinaloa, Sonora, Tamaulipas and Oaxaca, according to data provided by the agency to Journalism CN.
Regarding Sinaloa, the institution did not provide the number of certificates and the number of DETs for each one, but it did provide the record of routes for inspection.
In certified states such as Tamaulipas, there has been no surveillance since 2016. And in others, such as Baja California Sur, there hasn't been since 2017.
Meanwhile, in Veracruz, Nayarit, Chiapas and Campeche, no inspection has been recorded in relation to the use of DETs
“One of the biggest weaknesses of the government (in the fishing sector) is inspection and surveillance... Right now no one is inspecting us. Last season when we went fishing, nobody checked the excluders,” says Marco Antonio García.
Regarding the inspection tours carried out by Conapesca, the agency reported for this report that “no document was found containing the information requested at the level of disaggregation required by the petitioner.”
Therefore, it only indicated that from January 1 to October 17, 2022, it carried out 12,550 land tours and 3,119 water tours in general, without indicating how many of these were focused on monitoring DETs per year.
Of the states where Profepa inspects DETs, Sonora tops the list in sanctions for non-use, with 11 network and ship insurances over the past 10 years. While entities such as Baja California Sur, Campeche, Sinaloa and Oaxaca have had only one insurance in the same period.
Marco Antonio explains that several of the fishing companies they work for are given training to use them correctly.
“The vast majority of fishing companies and cooperatives have been trying for more than five years to comply with the most punctual requirements in the use of excluders,” adds the fisherman, although he also recognizes that there are those who still sail without them.
One of the main reasons why vigilance in the use of DETs has decreased is the lack of budget granted to environmental institutions, necessary to keep staff trained or provide transportation for tours.
“We have little infrastructure to move around, mainly boats, there is also a lack of personnel and training. So we had to coordinate with Semar,” said José, official inspector of Conapesca, who for reasons of confidentiality has asked to change his real name for this publication.
“In addition, there is no good coordination with Profepa, despite being the institution with the greatest power to carry out tours and certify the use of DETs,” added the inspector.
According to an analysis of the budget allocated to Profepa, published by Journalism CN, the agency has just under 50% of resources to carry out its functions.
Regarding the number of environmental inspectors in the agency, while in 2012 there were 714 people in the country, in 2021 only 443 inspectors were hired, being one of the most critical years. In 2022, the number rose to 602.
Environmental inspectors
In the case of Conapesca, the picture of resource reduction over the last five years is similar, despite the fact that a 5.2% budget increase is expected for next year.
“We know that the correct use of DETs is proportional to the inspection that is carried out,” explains the Conapesca inspector.
Thus, the combination of low budget, lack of inspection and failures committed by fishermen in the use of technologies is negatively impacting efforts to conserve sea turtles.
Two sides of DETs
One of the most important news for the fishing sector occurred on April 30 last year, when the United States government announced a shrimp embargo that suspended the import of this species from Mexico due to failures in the protection of sea turtles during fishing.
The embargo focused on smaller-scale coastal fishermen, despite the fact that industrial vessels were the ones that presented the irregularities.
In the case of Sonora, trawlers have complaints against the inspections carried out by Profepa, Conapesca and Semar, in relation to the use of DETs.
“The exclusion devices we use are a design that comes from the United States, so if you compare our conditions (in terms of ecosystems) with those of Florida, they are totally different from the Pacific. Each region must use a type of excluder that really works,” said Óscar Valdez, a fisherman in Guaymas, Sonora.
According to Valdez, in Mexico, rigid DETs are used with a hard grill that represents an obstacle when in contact with algae. This causes nets to be covered and fishing difficulties occur, which affects catch performance and, in turn, profits.
“Whether they close or remove them derives from the conditions of the marine terrain. If we don't have research or information to help us improve the use of these devices, we're fried, and there isn't any,” said the fisherman.
Even José, inspector of Conapesca, agrees that there are irregularities in the use of exclusion devices. For him, this is caused by a lack of training.
For example, the opening of the DETs to allow efficient shrimp fishing, without blocking the exit of turtles, needs to be adapted to an angle of 45 to 55 degrees, since if it is smaller there may be loss in the catch.
“Excluders may comply with the standard, but not be efficient at fishing because they are not installed properly. That's where the training has to do the job,” added José.
In addition to technical management, fishermen also consider that between the authorities responsible for the inspection, Profepa and Conapesca, there is no agreement on the review criteria that generate sanctions.
“In general, we have tried to comply with everything, but Profepa arrives, does an inspection and they try to find a small detail that Conapesca did not tell us. The measurement (of the DET) may be the same, the thickness is the same, but what changes is the color because each company that produces networks uses its colors to distinguish its commercialization and only because of the (different) color they sanction us,” explained Marco Antonio García, from Puerto Peñasco, Sonora.
No drag
It's 5 in the morning in Puerto Peñasco, Sonora, and the shrimp trawler that sails in the area has not encountered another turtle. The companions share the video of the release, but it is the only recorded case among the dozens of boats that will go fishing over the course of the season.
Meanwhile, actions to reduce bycatch from trawling remain pending.
International organizations such as Oceana and Greenpeace have taken a stand against trawling. As it is a method that consists of moving nets across the seabed, without selectivity, it produces effects that go beyond capturing turtles.
“This type of fishing not only has a direct impact on fish populations and benthic communities in the areas where it is used, but it can also have long-term effects on the ecosystem since it alters the physical properties of the seabed,” shares Oceana.
In countries such as Costa Rica, trawling was banned by order of the Constitutional Chamber in 2013, since it was determined that there was damage to the environment.
However, there are those for whom curbing the use of this dragging technique would not be an option. Despite the fact that 66% of shrimp production is from aquaculture in Mexico, there are still 807 larger vessels associated with shrimp trawling and around 46,800 people are directly dependent on this fishery.
On the other hand, for those who are in favor of continuing trawling, increasing and applying the budget; improving the inspection of technologies such as DETs; training fishermen, and tackling illegal fishing are actions that, carried out thoroughly, could make a difference.
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