On December 3, the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy (Ocean Panel) presented a new agenda for 2025, where the 14 leaders who lead it, including Mexico, made an important commitment to creating an ocean area that is 100% sustainable. In this regard, Mexico will design new national programs to expand and improve Fishing Refuge Zones and to address the effects of climate change on the oceans.
In addition, the panel considers it a priority action to eliminate illegal fishing, strengthen control and surveillance, and allow better collaboration between all interested parties. Let us remember that, according to the United Nations, one of the greatest threats to the sustainability of global fisheries resources is illegal unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU) 2. In addition, this illegal activity, in addition to damaging the oceans, is also damaging the livelihoods of those who depend on fishing, since around 660 and 880 million people worldwide are favored by this activity, according to figures from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Faced with this commitment that Mexico has entered into, it is a priority to take serious action against illegal fishing, since problems such as the extinction of the Vaquita Marina; looting of Totoaba and the defaunation of Protected Natural Areas persist. In addition, with the health crisis that accompanied 2020 affecting thousands of fishermen when their activities stopped, the marine territory has been left free for poaching, as indicated by the National Chamber of the Fisheries and Aquaculture Industry (CANAINPESCA) 3.
The Ocean Panel initiative recommends strengthening control and surveillance, and Causa Natura joins these efforts. Through the analysis of existing official data, the organization seeks to learn lessons to improve strategies in dealing with this problem.
Causa Natura has focused on making visible the effectiveness of each state in the country in the fight against illegal fishing, publishing the Index of Effectiveness in Fishery Inspection and Surveillance. This index summarizes information on the resources invested in combating illegal fishing, as well as the actions taken to prevent such illegal activity in order to improve the strategy to combat illegal fishing.
Among these analyses, it can be seen that in 2020 Jalisco, Yucatán and Baja California Sur are the states that have had better scores in the Index. In addition, Sinaloa also improved this year, compared to the previous series of data from 2013-2018. It was observed that Sinaloa and Baja California increased the number of CONAPESCA people assigned to inspection and surveillance tasks. However, this came at the cost of reducing the number of inspectors for the other states. Colima, Tamaulipas and Guerrero have been states that have not performed well in this area and have also experienced a reduction in staff or remained the same as in previous years. Similarly, the number of vehicles destined for inspection and surveillance activities increased between 2018 and 2020 for the state of Sinaloa by 11 units. However, for the remaining states, there was the same number of units or a certain decrease in these. In this regard, it can be seen that resources at the national level have diminished and existing resources are being transferred to a limited number of states. Although they are states with higher production, places where redoubling efforts are needed are being left unattended, such as Baja California Sur, Sonora, Tamaulipas, Colima, and other states.
Note:
1 Australia, Canada, Chile, Fiji, Ghana, Indonesia, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Namibia, Portugal, Norway and Palau
2 Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Why illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing affects us all. http://www.fao.org/fao-stories/article/es/c/1137413/#:~:text=En%20total%2C%20la%20pesca%20y,12%25%20de%20la%20poblaci%C3%B3n%20mundial!
3 “Illegal fishing doesn't rest. Fleets in the Pacific and Gulf of Mexico are at a standstill. But those who are working are the illegals” ContraReplica. The COVID blow to fishing: merchants have 85% fewer sales since the beginning of the epidemic http://slp.contrareplica.mx/node/5590
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