Around 34% of fisheries in Mexico are overexploited or in poor condition due to environmental conditions such as pollution or habitat destruction, according to data from Oceana. The lack of recovery of deteriorated natural resources directly affects fishermen, who are mostly coastal fishermen.
To explain the flaws and areas of opportunity in the General Law on Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture (LGPAS), Causa Natural Media interviewed Esteban García-Peña Valenzuela, director of fisheries campaigns for the Mexican office of Oceana, an international organization dedicated to the protection of the oceans.
The interview with García Peña has been edited for clarity.
— Which are these fisheries that are in poor condition?
— There are a lot of them, but it's more or less 34% of the fisheries in the entire country.
To mention a few names, the huachinango of the Gulf of Mexico, the lobster and the octopus in Yucatán, the grouper also in Yucatán, the abalone and the hedgehog in Baja California, there is the lisa and the sea bass in Sinaloa. Some species of scale are also in poor condition, such as snappers in Oaxaca and Chiapas, and pink shrimp in Campeche.
In short, all these species are in poor condition and there is an urgent need for a law to mandate the authority and that requires the participation of fishermen; and citizens in these restoration actions.
— Why would focusing on the volume of a few fisheries affect coastal fishermen?
Because inshore fishing doesn't report as many volumes.
However, at Oceana we proposed a new measurement model, which we call the index of social importance of fisheries, and it is nothing more complex than seeing how many fishermen are in this activity, how many vessels, how many permits, how many permit holders and in how many states a fishery is present.
And what we realized is that the most important of all is, let me use the generic name, scale.
There are more than 300 species that have fin scales and that are what we know as the fish we eat, since most of these fisheries are carried out by coastal fishermen.
— What other factors affect coastal fishermen?
The climate crisis is also causing anomalies in the water, and either because of temperature or because of currents or waves, what is happening is that the fishermen either cannot get out because of the storm, or the water is so hot that the species are moving to deeper waters.
And, this is like the toothpick that grabs the cherry on the cake that goes down: the lowest investment by the federal government in inspection and surveillance. Poaching has grown and so says the National Chamber of the Fishing Industry.
— What characteristics should a regulatory framework that recovers and protects marine abundance have?
We at Oceana are not going to talk about good or bad, we are going to talk about what is needed. The law needs, number one, to divide the regulation of aquaculture, which is an action that has nothing to do with fishing.
Because fishing is an activity of natural use, of a natural resource that requires specific management in order not to lose it or to recover it. Unlike aquaculture, which has other techniques.
We need to start considering dividing these two sectors and for each to have its own law.
— Regarding the law, why is it necessary to separate coastal fishing from industrial fishing?
It is a law that discriminates between inshore fishing and deep-sea fishing, because it puts those who have greater economic possibilities, such as the industry, those with the least economic possibilities, which are coastal fishing, on an equal footing.
You put the same conditions of competition on both of them, you have to have a permit, you have to have a concession, you have to do studies, you have to do a series of things that leave the coastal fisherman at a disadvantage.
Therefore, there must be a differentiation in the way in which industrial and coastal fishing are to be authorized to fish.
— What gaps do you find in the LGPAS?
The General Fisheries Law is the only law that protects a natural resource that does not contemplate its recovery if it is, let's say, deteriorated.
Would you say good, and what others? The General Wildlife Act contemplates them and there are express actions for the restoration of wildlife.
The General Law on Sustainable Forest Development contemplates the restoration of forest forest resources; well, the National Water Act contemplates the restoration of hydrological basins for the maintenance of the water cycle; the Mining Law, the restoration of the ecosystems that intervene; the General Law of Ecological Balance speaks of this great utopia of the recovery of ecological balance.
— How can these faults be solved?
It is essential that the General Fisheries Law establishes the obligation of the government to recover fishing species that are in poor condition, overexploited, deteriorated or collapsed and that they ensure the participation of fishermen in these recovery actions, because no one knows better how to take advantage of a resource than the fishermen themselves.
—With the gaps and areas of opportunity presented by the LGPAS, how can the success of a fishery be measured?
I think there is no better success than to say that fishing contributes to food sovereignty in Mexico and that is not happening.
In Mexico, unfortunately, fishing is running out, a lot is being exported, a lot of high quality, for example, tuna or shrimp, and since it is very expensive here and has international markets, well, no, it doesn't help much for food sovereignty or food security in Mexico.
— What examples of fisheries do you consider to be successful?
I could tell you about Pesca ABC (civil association), which is in the Upper Gulf of California, which is managing to give added value to the curve, instead of the curve costing 10 pesos, it now costs 80 or 90 or more, because they give it added value at the time of capture, at the time of processing.
The same thing is happening with the flake fishery in this already well-known corridor, which is the San Cosme Punta Coyote corridor, where (fishermen) managed to recover the flake fishery.
So we need the success of fish resources to be measured in that sense, in food sovereignty.
That fishing is sufficient or generates sustained income over time, because the success of fishing is also that we do not overexploit it, but that it is in balance, but that sustainable resources generate better and stable living conditions and well-being for fishermen, and that they have a greater participation in the basic basket, that they have a greater participation in the food sovereignty of this country.
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