“I'm a fisherman, I'm currently a captain, and I'm dedicated to conservation tourism,” replies Félix Rochín, 32, originally from Agua Amarga, when asked what he does for a living. He continues to say that he is a fisherman despite the fact that it has been five years since he ventured into tourism and three years without going out fishing. Somehow it still belongs to the sea.
The Agua Amarga community is known for having the best shark anglers. For more than three generations, shark fishing has given them memories, sustenance and knowledge of the sea.
However, in the last 20 years, fishing resources began to decrease due to industrial fishing and illegal fishing in the area. Sharks saw that there were more and more providers of tourist services in the sea and how fishermen were converting completely or partially to tourism, an activity that left them with more profits.
For this reason, a group of seven fishermen, including Rochín, ventured as captains collaborating with other tourist service providers and for three years they have been accompanied by Orgcas, an organization dedicated to working with coastal communities seeking the protection of the sea, to constitute a tourist cooperative.
Through these efforts, they have reduced, and in some cases eliminated, shark fishing in Bay of the Dead and around Cerralvo Island, in Baja California Sur, in northwestern Mexico.
The Fall of Fishing
Wooden boat owned by José Lucero, Joel Lucero's grandfather. Source: Joel Lucero Family Archive.
Luciano, Joel Lucero's great-great-grandfather, was the founder of the Agua Amarga community and a fisherman, whose wooden boats were powered by sailing and rowing in the sea. The tradition continued with his grandfather José, with his father Luciano and now 61-year-old Joel partially broke that tradition by combining fishing with tourism.
When he started fishing, all the boats in the community were dedicated to commercial fishing, says Joel Lucero. Around Cerralvo Island, in front of the Punta Arena Lighthouse, in Punta Perico and Bay of the Dead, they captured huachinango, cabrilla, anchovies, cochito and shark, mainly mako, blue, pilot and hammer.
However, both illegal and industrial fishing have deteriorated the status of all the species found in the area. Although the latter is legal, its practices are considered to be unsustainable.
“There are destructive industries and economic activities that have diminished and affected species. For example, a tuna and shrimp boat can take in one night what they would take out in a year. They scratch the bottom and catch all juveniles of all species. These destructive activities are a threat to the livelihood of communities,” said Frida Lara, a shark specialist for 10 years and scientific coordinator at Orgcas.
The sharks present in the Mexican Pacific and the Gulf of California are in the category of “maximum sustainable use” in the National Fisheries Charter, which means that current extraction is at the limit of not jeopardizing the recovery of the species in the long term, and recommends not increasing fishing effort.
This, together with a devaluation of fish products in the market, discourages fishermen and encourages them to seek alternatives that generate stable incomes.
“What I'm really passionate about is fishing, but in the market our product is very underpaid. It's disappointing to arrive with your beautiful, well-preserved product, caught by hand and selectively and that they don't give it the value it deserves. I prefer that they continue to swim free than to kill them to missell them,” said Rochín, who made up one of the most efficient shark fishing teams in Agua Amarga.
From the sea to tourists: the paradigm shift
Many fishermen, such as Lucero and Rochín, have seen an opportunity to earn better income from tourism. The most common thing is that they work there seasonally, for example, from May to July when sharks are closed, they are dedicated to tourism and fishing for other species, and when it is low season, visitors go fishing to the fullest.
“Fishing work is increasingly difficult and does not guarantee economic stability. I saw that other fishermen had switched to tourism and were doing very well. Our work was going down and theirs was going up, and I said, 'I think we're on the wrong side, we have to try', and although it hasn't been easy, we tried to mix fishing and tourism because that guarantees us greater stability,” Lucero said.
Diego Correa, coordinator of the sustainable economy program in the organization RED sustainable tourism, is responsible for accompanying and advising on the consolidation of community tourism projects. He points out that currently no sector can depend on a single income because it is not sustainable.
“If they depend on an activity, when that activity has its crises and unpredictable situations such as weather events, it has a decline. By taking advantage of natural and cultural heritage, there is an opportunity to diversify experiences and it is the communities that are requiring it,” he said.
Community tourism is based on the local need to venture into tourism and for them to manage their natural heritage to obtain an economic benefit from it.
Fishermen see it as an alternative to give a break to the species they fish, since they are aware that the constant extraction of sharks and the species on which this species feeds and their habitat can cause their disappearance.
“Dedicating ourselves to tourism in what regenerates the sea, is a bit of the dynamic we want too, because if all of us who are in tourism dedicated ourselves to fishing completely, we would really hit the species very hard,” said Lucero.
Through tourism, they care for, conserve and generate income, which is an important part for Correa. “Human societies need resources to survive. So we have to be creative so that in these contexts there is still a resource for the community but there is no degradation of species,” he said.
Challenges for a just conversion
In 2021, Orgcas approached Agua Amarga where there were 26 permits for shark fishing. He met with a group of fishermen to invite them to be part of the Tiburón project, which proposed a transition to conservation tourism as an alternative to replacing fishing for collapsed species such as sharks.
“We didn't come to attack them, but to offer them training and the possibility of bringing in pangas and customers. We told them, 'all we need is for you to want to work with us, '” Lara said. By August of that same year, they were engaged in their first outing to the sea with Lucero.
The first phase of the project began in 2022 with training and a formalization process. They received first aid courses, diving safety courses and obtained their sea books.
In a second phase in 2024, through an agreement with the organization RED sustainable tourism, they undertook a process to improve their business model and strengthen their capacities, which continues today.
Diagnostic session of the group of fishermen for their community tourism project in November 2024. Source: RED sustainable tourism AC.
That same year, Banco Intercam donated two boats through a loan agreement in which, after three years, if the fishermen stop fishing for sharks completely, they become the property of the fishermen.
In order to become more competitive and independent, fishermen were established as a tourist cooperative at the end of 2024, and with this there have been more financial and legal challenges that they are in the process of solving, such as obtaining a permit to protect their tourist activities.
In the area where they work, there is no regulation of tourist activities, so they are in the process of being regulated and signing agreements with universities and companies that seek to do scientific tourism.
Meanwhile, fishermen are implementing best management practices to minimize the impact of tourism activities on ecosystems.
Value proposition
Their greatest advantage over the competition in the market is their 30 years of experience at sea, which has filled them with knowledge about the territory, the climate and the local history that they share with those who go out to sea with them. This is what RED calls its value proposition, which is what distinguishes the project from others.
“We put a lot of heart into the activity. If you go with a local fisherman who became captain you will never get bored because if you don't find marine life at the time, he can tell you local stories. All of this has its own enrichment,” Rochín said.
He goes out at least three times a week as a captain and sometimes also as a guide. For six hours he shares his knowledge with the groups on board, takes them to places to encounter the great biodiversity of the area, they stop at the beaches most appreciated by them and share their traditional dishes.
During the tour, they share the shark history of their community and the challenges they have faced when venturing into tourism, and in this way, they offer some environmental education and awareness to those who take the tours with them. Unlike tourism, large companies are only interested in the rate of profit they are going to obtain regardless of social, cultural and environmental variables.
Mobulas in Bay of the Dead, Baja California Sur. Source: Eliseo Geraldo
Results and replicability
The Tiburón Project aims to equate the income that fishermen received from shark fishing with tourism. To achieve this, they need to increase the number of exits to the sea so that this translates into income for fishermen.
However, the incursion into tourism has been difficult mainly because fishermen come to the market when there is already a lot of competition and there are providers with better boats, equipment, logistics and with a significant customer base. Its main challenge has been to be competitive in that market.
“A big challenge here is to enter the market since they are in a space where competition can be very uneven. They start from a scheme of inequality with a slightly aggressive tourism sector, so we have to see how to strengthen them,” said Correa.
Despite adversities, Lucero reduced shark fishing by 20%, although it continues to largely maintain its income from fishing for other species. While Rochín has been dedicated exclusively to tourism for three years.
“Their approach was not to take away shark fishing, in any way, they said that the project was only going to make us stop fishing for it, and as it turned out, there came a stage in which we couldn't afford to deal with shark fishing and tourism. We chose to undo the society we had of four and to stop fishing for sharks,” Rochín said.
So far, Orgcas has only been able to quantify the income that fishermen earn through the science activities they do with them and in collaboration with other organizations. In these outputs, Orgcas collects samples of shark tissue and environmental DNA, places and monitors temperature sensors, with the objective of obtaining information to help them take actions to manage and protect sharks and their habitats.
Collection of environmental DNA samples in Cerralvo Island in collaboration with Dr. Adrián Munguia. Source: Orgcas
During 2024, Orgcas made 114 trips to the sea that generated an income of 222,000 pesos per captaincy, which represents an average monthly income of 18,500 pesos for the group of fishermen. However, their income is higher because they also work as captains with tourist companies, as guides and rent boats.
“The moment we equalize the income generated by shark fishing, which is not so easy, fishermen will no longer depend on it and will have an income that allows them to support their family without having to go back to shark fishing,” Lara said.
In addition, they are currently processing monitoring data to quantify the impact of the shark project on the population of the species in this area. At the moment they only know that on average a fisherman catches between seven and 10 sharks per trip to the sea, so if multiplied by 114 trips with Orgcas, they estimate that the fishing of around 1,140 sharks was avoided during 2024.
The shark project is under construction and it has taken more than four years to achieve what it has taken so far, so the replicability of this type of project is a challenge, according to Gabriela Galindo, director of RED, since projects require personalized support according to their community realities.
However, other projects may find inspiration in the case of Bitter Water shark fishermen to adapt them to their conditions.
“We would love to be able to have a replicable model and have them take the course and get their diagnosis on a platform and that's it, but the circumstances are very particular. We learned the lesson that we have to leave one by one to have the sensitivity to accompany them in everything they need to achieve professionalization, commercialization, etc.”, says Galindo.
*This report is part of series #TiburonerosEnCrisis, a special about the different challenges faced by shark fishing in Mexico.
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