Fisheries Typical Production Units At Northwestern Mexico

To analyse and project the impact of structural, technological and political changes on food production, the Mexican Government, through the Secretary of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA), is undertaking the analysis of typical production units TPU in the agricultural and livestock sectors, by means of adapting simulation models originally developed for the United States of America. TPU are defined by means of panels in which producers provide technical and economic data (cost of production, profit, etc.) in order to carry out a micro-economic analysis of a base year and its 10-year projection, making assumptions on the development of prices derived from macro-economic analysis. This methodology has not been applied for the case of fisheries up to now, so the project has begun by considering small scale fisheries (for abalone and lobster at the west coast of the Baja California peninsula) and industrial fisheries (the sardine fishery in the Gulf of California). In this study we present the ongoing results on the definition of TPU. For the first one, classification criteria include geographical location, as well as their organization, production and social impact levels; three TPU were defined. For the second, the kind of fishing vessels and the degree to which the freezing, canning and reduction processes are integrated; however, we ended up considering exclusively the type of fishing boats to define two TPU. Each TPU is hereby described and discussed within the framework of each fishery and their historical development.Keywords: Fisheries Economics, Markets and Trad

The Round Table of Mexican Fisheries: Fisheries Governance Examples from Northwestern Mexico

Fisheries management currently claims for fisheries governance (FG), a more balanced scheme that proposes to share the power among government, civil society and economics. In Mexico and other developing countries, the lack of operational regulations has delayed its implementation. Several authors state that topological analysis is useful to identify key stakeholders and their relations, thus it can be used to identify the generalized model of participation needed to achieve the FG. The aim of this study was to identify how the FG social structure is currently performing in sardine, blue crab, abalone and red lobster fisheries in NW Mexico. Based on interviews a topological stakeholder map was elaborated for each fishery; centrality measure was calculated and interpreted as power indicator. Social Network Analysis (SNA) showed that all stakeholders recognized by law are present (government, civil society, fishermen and researchers), although they play different social roles in each fishery. Structural and regular equivalences were identified for each fishery; the four systems showed that federal management agencies, and producer associations can be grouped in a main cluster with different companions according the fishery. Federal Agencies and producer associations were the key players in all the four fisheries state agencies, NGOs and research institutions were present with different weight in each system. The round table contains all the guests but some of them can play a more important role. We found this method is useful to identify key players and their interactions, key aspect to achieve FG as generalized scheme

Baja California's biological transition zone: refuges for the California sardine

The information on the transitional areas between the temperate and tropical domains at the southern extent of the California Current System is reviewed and described, particularly searching for the relative isolation or interchange between the western coast of the Baja California peninsula and the Gulf of California, as well as mechanisms that permit the existence of sizeable stocks of California sardine. Biological Action Centers that have high productivity throughout the year, as opposed to the rest of the coastal area, are found in both the western coast of the peninsula at the Sebastián Vizcaíno—Punta Eugenia region and in the Ballenas Channel inside the gulf; these features support large biomasses of sardine throughout the full year and serve as long term refuges during adverse periods. The role of the Sebastián Vizcaino sardine stock as the primary group for expansion is examined

Observations on the genero centropomus (pisces: centropomidae)

ArtículosLa detección de una especie de róbalo que no se ajustó a las claves de identificación para los centropomidos (róbalos) del Océano Pacífico, se realizó en el marco del Proyecto Escama del Centro Regional de Investigación Pesquera Unidad Mazatlán Instituto Nacional de la Pesca, SAGARPA, en el sistema lagunar estuarino de Teacapán- Agua Brava, ubicado en el sur de Sinaloa y norte de Nayarit. La observación se hizo patente al identificar taxonómicamente a las especies de centropomidos presentes en el área y su correspondiente nombre común, empero los pescadores ribereños mencionaban otro nombre vernáculo que no fue posible adjudicarlo a ninguna de las especies ya identificadas; al inicio de los trabajos se pensó que se trataba de otro nombre común para la especie Centropomus nigrescens por su aparente similitud con esta, sin embargo, al someterla a las claves no se ajustó a ninguna de las especies, inclusive en características generales como la disposición de la línea lateral y coloración en vivo.The detection of a species of snook that did not adjust to the keys of identification for the centropomidae (snooks) of the Pacific Ocean, was whitin the framework made in the Proyect Grudge of Regional Center of Fhishing Investigation in Mazatlán INP SAGARPA, in the coastal lagoon system of Teacapán-Agua Brava located in the south of Sinaloa and north of Nayarit, the observation became patent when it was identified cientifically to the species of centropomidae present in the area, and it´s corresponding common name, however the artisanal fisherman mentionad another name common, that one did not adjust to any of the species already determined; at the beginning of the works one thought was another common name for the specie Centropomus nigrecsens by his aparent similarity with that, nevertheless when putting under it the usual keys, did not adjust to any of the species, including in external general chracteristics like the disposition of the lateral line and coloration live

20th Century variability of the Gulf of California SST

Annually averaged sea surface temperature anomalies at four 2°x2° quadrants at the Gulf of California, Mexico) were constructed using ICOADS (International Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set) and ERSST (NOAA Extended Reconstructed SST data set), contrasted to similar latitudinal quadrants at the Pacific coast of the Baja California peninsula to assess their independent variation, given the way ERSST data are constructed by geographical interpolation and their close vicinity to the Pacific coast. Later they were compared to large scale environmental indices (Pacific Decadal Oscillation index, PDO; and Nino 3 index, N3) to examine their relationships. Hamming filters were utilized to isolate high (<10 years), decadal (10-20 years) and low (>20 years) frequencies for comparison. The relationships of the decadal scale variation and the relative abundance of stocks being harvested by two outstanding fisheries (penaeid shrimps and California sardine) are explored given their strong response to environmental variations because of their short life cycle and fast growth

Reflexiones sobre la explotación, recuperación y extinción de poblaciones naturales

La idea tradicional de que la explotación provoca cambios irreversibles en las especies de interés comercial parece no estar del todo justificada, sino al contrario, existen evidencias basadas en biología y genética de poblaciones que apuntan a que no existen razones evidentes como para creer que una población no pueda restablecerse una vez suprimida la presión ejercida por el hombre. Al parecer, solo los cambios en el ambiente pueden llevar a las poblaciones a niveles a partir de los cuales ya no puedan recuperarse. Se hace una revisión de varios casos que apoyan esta hipótesis

Impacts of interannual environmental variation on the shrimp fishery off the Gulf of California

This work presents an exploratory analysis of the potential relationship between offshore shrimp catches and environmental factors at the Gulf of California, using shrimp harvest information from Guaymas, Sonora, and Mazatlán, Sinaloa,México.Multiple correlation analysis was used to examine the relationships between landings time series and environmental variables, including average rainfall, fluvial discharge, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) and the El Niño Multivariate (MEI) Indices. Environmental index series were split for January through June (cold season) and July through December (warm season), since shrimp populations show two reproduction peaks throughout the year.These two spawning seasons give rise to two cohorts: the cold-season (April–June) and the warm-season (October–November), the former sustaining the fishery during the open season (September–March) and yielding 90% of total catch between September and October.Our findings indicate that the mean PDO index for the cold season accounted for the highest percentage of catch variation, suggesting that conditions during the cold season (January–June) may determine recruiting in the April–June cohort.This information may be used to derive catch forecasts several months in advance