Ban on fishing prompts El Golfo protests
Gov’t yet to announce if ban will continue
SAN LUIS RIO COLORADO, Son. — Following a contentious week that saw federal government vehicles set on fire in a demonstration, fishermen at El Golfo de Santa Clara, Sonora, face the possibility of a renewed ban on commercial fishing in the Sea of Cortes.
The Mexican government imposed the ban on a two-year trial basis in 2015 in efforts to protect the vaquita, an endangered species of porpoise. The current ban is due to expire in April and the fisherman have not yet heard whether it will be extended.
In the meantime, they say, they are being denied their livelihood at a time when the current tidal season in the gulf is most favorable for fishing for the species they’re seeking, the corvina.
During the ban, the government provided the fisherman financial compensation for the fish they otherwise would have expected to catch and on Monday it made another offer to compensate them for the current fishing season that extends through next month.
Under the offer, the Mexican Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (known by its Spanish acronym SEMARNAT) is offering to pay the fishermen an amount equal to what they would receive on the market for 4,300 tons of corvina.
Baja California fishermen who fish in the gulf have accepted the offer, but not those in El Golfo, a tiny community on the tip of the gulf that has seen its main industry gradually evolve from fishing to tourism.
Carlos Tirado, head of an organization made up of El Golfo fisherman, said the
group wants to be able to pursue its traditional livelihood.
“The offer was accepted by the other two corvina fishing communities but not by those of El Golfo de Santa Clara, because they decided to take more time to analyze it. It would mean missing this year’s fishing season.”
The El Golfo fishermen contend their activity has no impact on the vaquita population. Prior to Monday’s offer by the government to buy their catch, they had sought from SEMARNAT a special permit exempting them from the fishing restriction.
The lack of a response to their permit request prompted some fishermen to stage what they called a peaceful protest at El Golfo. Then on March 8 someone set fire to several vehicles belonging to SEMARNAT. Tirado said his group had nothing to do with those incidents.
“We didn’t call the violent demonstration that happened last week,” he said recently. “We have been protesting, but peacefully, making our demands to the federal authorities and seeking the support of all the agencies of the government.”
But the season of prime fishing draws to a close next month, he said, and the only option left to El Golfo fishermen who don’t want to accept the government’s compensation offer is to fish illegally.
The government has not announced whether it will extend the fishing ban past its April expiration. Tirado contends the prohibition has had no effect in reversing the decline of the vaquita, a species he says is caught in a type of net not used by the El Golfo fishermen.
“The specialists have said that there are fewer re- maining vaquita than there were when the protection program began,” he said.
Formal complaints have been filed with federal prosecutors against those responsible for the fires, but as of now no arrests have been made.