During our March 1, 2006 fishing report where the legal netting of spawning Yellowtail within its boundries was described, I had a chance to review what we had posted on the park way back when our business was just starting out in 1997. I became discontented in what was written to promote the Park versus how the Marine Park actually was being managed, especially from the point of view of tourism and sport fishing interests. The original text follows, and below it, there have been added links with descriptions of organizations that involve themselves with funding of the Loreto Marine Park.
Composed in 1999: Parque Nacional Bahia de Loreto was established in July, 1996 under President Ernesto Zedillo. The park covers nearly half a million acres and encompasses the islands of Coronado, Carmen, Danzante, Monserrat, and Santa Catalina. See maps here. The park's boundries are a large part of the local fishing grounds off Loreto, so understanding its goals and rules is very important to us.
The waters that surround Loreto were probably once the richest, and most prolific in the entire Sea of Cortez. Years of both Mexican and Foreign commercial trawling and seining, coupled with very efficient inshore sportfishing fleets had finally taken its toll on the area. The marine park was established because of the recognizable depletion in our fishery.
Industrial fishing has been made illegal within the boundries of the park. In 1999, more employees were added to the park's staff and with them, full-time monitoring and enforcement of its rules has started to take place. Park staff are agents of PROFEPA, the enforcement branch of SEMARNAP (Mexican Fish and Game). They have the right to cite, detain, confiscate property, and arrest those who violate the park's rules. As a result of the increased staffing, two shrimp trawlers that were working within the confines of the park, were confiscated in June of 1999.
Research within the park is an ongoing process, and the interpretation of that research will dictate future regulations. Plans to zone sensitive areas of the park are underway. These sensitive areas will have strict fishing regulations placed on them so that they may be protected more intensely. The local fishermen will have to learn new, low-impact ways to fish the park, and their permits will not be renewed unless they comply. For instance, there may be areas in the future which will be restricted to "catch and release only", artificial lures (no bait), or barbless hooks. These methods of protection are practiced widely in several fisheries in the United States and other countries.
The local fishermen are not taking these changes very well. They have never had very many regulations placed on them in the past, and now regulations are being dumped on them by the truckload. Education is the key to helping them understand that today's sacrifices will be tomorrow's reward. In the meantime, we can offer an example and cooperate with the park's wishes. The rules may seem restrictive, but they are very well meant and much research has gone into creating them. Think about the fisheries that have gone under similar restrictions in your local area, and how they have bounced back in terms of productivity. The same will happen here if all cooperate, and our children will be able to experience the same great fishing (maybe better) that we now have the privilege of enjoying.
The above was written in 1999, we only wish the Park functioned as ideally as this sounds.
The reality of the situation in May of 2008 is this: it has been discovered that the regulations of the Loreto Marine Park specifically state that netting any species of fish within 300 meters of the shorelines of Isla Carmen (among other places) is Illegal from April 1 through August 30, as written on page 52 of la Programa de Manejo Parque Nacional Bahia de Loreto, 2nd edition published by CONANP in November of 2002 (the management plan that is currently being followed). After filing a personal complaint on April 21, 2008 and another written complaint on May 6, 2008 about another boat performing this illegal activity, we are still being informed of continuing violations while the Marine Park personnel does NOTHING TO STOP THEM. We would also like to add that although Marine Park officials promised us that on April 22, 2008 they would check on illegal netting off Isla Carmen which is approximately 12 miles away form port, they instead traveled approximately 40 miles south to Isla Santa Catalina to check Marine Park ticktes of visiting angler sportfishermen!
The images below were taken on May 6, 2008 by a concerned local citizen and submitted to Marine Park officials in the form of a complaint on the afternoon of May 6, 2008. Their response came on May 8, 2008 stating their appreciation for pointing this activity out to them and with a promise to go and check it out. We continue to receive reports of this kind of illegal fishing activity off Isla Carmen. The last report came to us on May 17, 2008 at 05:30 a.m. with the description of "a large boat netting fish along the shoreline at Isla Carmen".
The list that follows are links to the organizations that have funded or plan to fund the Loreto Marine Park. Feel free to voice your opinion to them as to what's going on here.
We will maintain a log of complaints against this kind of violation inside the Marine Park along with the responses and actual actions of the park as they pertain to these complaints. Since we have to buy these brazaletas (Marine Park ticktes) we may as well get our money's worth!
Marine Protected Area Management Effectiveness Initiative Web site http://www.effectivempa.noaa.gov/welcome.html http://www.effectivempa.noaa.gov/sites/loreto.html#top PROJECT SUPPORT
The initiative is supported by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas - Marine, World Wide Fund for Nature, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Ocean Service.
The Loreto Bay Foundation http://www.loretobayfoundation.org/ The project must be "organized and operated for charitable purposes" (i.e. not a for-profit venture). Project staff are allowed to earn a fair salary for their work on the project, but investors are not allowed to make a profit from the project. The principal benefactors of LBF are the Loreto Bay Company and the residents of Loreto Bay.
"The Ocean Foundation is the USA host for the Loreto Bay Foundation"
The Ocean Foundation http://www.oceanfdn.org/main.html "We search the globe for compelling projects, and conduct due diligence on them. We then invest in the most promising nonprofit marine projects to support conservation work in a fashion that is strategic and coordinated."
"Loreto Bay Foundation Fund:
Supports sustainable development practices in the community of Loreto, Baja California Sur (Mexico), and the conservation of the Loreto Bay National Marine Park."
Its amazing the B.S. that gets published and is taken at face value by those that haven't a clue. Take a look at the above link, I especially disagree with this statement from the article:
"One problem posed by sports fishing is a lack of knowledge of the extractive capacity of the fleet and real catch levels, which makes it impossible to establish measures for regulating fishing practices. Another problem which has been pointed out by commercial fishermen is that current legislation does not include closed seasons; for that reason, some species are caught when they are pregnant."
Now if that statement isn't a load of crap, I don't know what is. If you have any doubts you may remember our March 1 2006 report where we witnessed first hand, commercial netters trapping and taking actively spawning Yellowtail inside bays and esturaries within the Loreto Marine Park, and with the approval of the Marine Park. This year, 2008 we witnessed netting of actively spawning Yellowtail and Cabrilla off Carmen Island even during the part of the year that is specifically illegal to do so while the Marine Park staff looks the other way! It gets better... when we showed marine biology students from UABCS photos of the mature egg sacks coming out of the fish that were being netted one of the more vocal students argued with me that the egg sack was in fact a jellyfish! This is a future policymaker in Mexico. We're doomed!
"In Loreto Bay, basic technologies such as radio communications, GIS, and computers as well as vehicles and boats were provided."
"In Loreto Bay, monitoring projects led to the closing of two public beaches and within five years, tourism impacts were reduced by 90 percent at all of the beaches."
THE DAVID AND LUCILE PACKARD FOUNDATION http://www.packard.org/home.aspx http://www.packard.org/categoryDetails.aspx?RootCatID=3&CategoryID=73 The Gulf of California is Mexico's most productive fishing zone and an important habitat for marine mammals, sea birds, and a large diversity of fish species. The islands of northwest Mexico harbor vital bird nesting sites and dozens of endemic species of mammals, reptiles, and plants. These biological resources are valuable assets that Mexico's civil society organizations are working to protect.
"Our Gulf of California grantmaking strategy is currently under review. We will resume grantmaking with new guidelines in the near future." Sounds like this organization actually has a clue as to what's going on.
The David and Lucile Packard foundation helped fund the Futuros Alternativos study which looks at various development scenarios and how they will affect the environment, mainly the freshwater supply in this region.
http://www.futurosalternativosloreto.org/
http://www.cec.org/grants/projects/details/index.cfm?varlan=english&ID=153
COMMISSION FOR ENVIRONMENTAL COOPERATION
United States
Received $25,000 US Dollars in 2001 "We carried out a very thorough analysis of the state of the fisheries at two sites to determine whether catches from these fisheries could be exported to the United States as "eco-fish." Unfortunately, the outcome revealed the poor state of fisheries in the region, and the lack of private sector capacity to compete in the high-end premium seafood market in southern California and the US (a unique market for lobster and abalone from one Pacific coast region of Baja California is the exception to this)." "We were surprised by what we found and realize that it is going to take a lot of work to help transform fisheries into a mechanism for conservation rather than what they currently are now—activities that create little economic dividend and result in a high level of environmental destruction."
http://www.bajalife.com/ecowatch/success.html
This link from Baja Life is about ten years old...excerpts include; "In July 1998, TNC initiated a three-year, $250,000 US Dollars commitment funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Packard Foundation, the Homeland Foundation, Orvis, the Japanese government, and the Vagabundos del Mar Travel Club. "
"Under the guidance of the University of La Paz and funded by a $65,000 US Dollars grant from FONATUR, the Bay of Loreto Park is now creating its Biological Resource Management Plan. "
