According to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI), in 2019 there were about 213,246 people who were directly dependent on fishing and aquaculture as a means of livelihood. And although at first glance this number may seem small compared to the number of workers who carry out other economic activities, it must be recognized that the work of fishermen and aquaculturists is strategic for the country's food security.
The universe of producers in the fishing and aquaculture sector is quite heterogeneous. Traditionally, and with the objective of simplifying the analysis, the Mexican fleet is divided into coastal fishing and deep-sea fishing. Within the coastal fishing group, which makes up the bulk of the workforce in the sector, there is a diversity of producers, ranging from those who work individually to fishing organizations and/or cooperatives.
Now, among the different factors that threaten fishing activity, especially the work of thousands of small producers in vulnerable situations, is climate change. The rise in global temperature is severely affecting ocean health by altering the course of marine currents, food chains and breeding and fishing areas; not to mention other effects that are not easy to quantify. These changes will increasingly, and not in a positive way, impact the lives of fishermen, their incomes and access to food for all. The climate emergency requires that urgent measures be taken to reverse environmental degradation processes that would only deepen poverty in coastal communities.
Fishing shelters are management tools that can contribute to measures to adapt to climate change . The effective functioning of areas restricted to fishing can help increase ecosystem biomass; encourage the conversion of fishing gears and the recovery of fisheries of commercial interest. Additionally, the empirical knowledge obtained from the process of implementing and operating shelters in Mexico suggests that fishing communities may be transforming the way they relate to marine resources, since the latter are beginning to be perceived more as natural wealth that must be preserved, valued and defended in community (through organization, surveillance, exchange and generation of information), than as resources “available” to open and unregulated competition between fishermen of a community or neighboring communities.
Fishing shelters are an alternative for community empowerment for the defense of natural heritage and should be a tool accessible to vulnerable fishing communities to guarantee their right to a decent life that is nourished by a healthy environment.
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