Overfishing drivers and opportunities for recovery in small-scale fisheries of the Midriff islands region, Gulf of California, Mexico: The role of land and sea institutions in fisheries sustainability

Institutions play an important role in shaping individual incentives in complex social-ecological systems, by encouraging or discouraging resource overuse. In the Gulf of California, Mexico, there is widespread evidence of declines in small-scale fishery stocks, largely attributed to policy failures. We investigated formal and informal rules-in-use regulating access and resource use by small-scale fishers in the two most important fishing communities of the Midriff Islands region in the Gulf of California, which share several target species and fishing grounds. The Midriff Islands region is a highly productive area where sustainable use of fisheries resources has been elusive. Our study aimed to inform policy by providing information on how management and conservation policies perform in this unique environment. In addition, we contrast attributes of the enabling conditions for sustainability on the commons in an effort to better understand why these communities, albeit showing several contrasting attributes of the above conditions, have not developed sustainable fishing practices. We take a novel, comprehensive institutional approach that includes formal and informal institutions, incorporating links between land (i.e., communal land rights) and sea institutions (i.e., fisheries and conservation policies) and their effects on stewardship of fishery resources, a theme that is practically unaddressed in the literature. Insufficient government support in provision of secure rights, enforcement and sanctioning, and recognition and incorporation of local arrangements and capacities for management arose as important needs to address in both cases. We highlight the critical role of higher levels of governance, that when disconnected from local practices, realities, and needs, can be a major impediment to achieving sustainability in small-scale fisheries, even in cases where several facilitating conditions are met.Resumen: Las instituciones desempeñan un papel importante en la determinación de los incentivos individuales en sistemas socio-ecológicos complejos, alentando o desalentando la sobreexplotación. En el Golfo de California, México, existe amplia evidencia de una marcada disminución en la abundancia de recursos pesqueros de pequeña escala o artesanales, atribuida a fracasos en las políticas de manejo. Este trabajo investiga las reglas formales e informales en uso para regular acceso y uso de recursos por parte de pescadores artesanales en las dos comunidades pesqueras más importantes de la Región de las Grandes Islas, Golfo de California. A pesar de su elevada productividad biológica, el uso sustentable de los recursos marinos en esta región ha sido difícil de alcanzar. Este trabajo proporcionamo información para optimizar el desempeño de los instrumentos de manejo y conservación de recursos marinos presentes en este ambiente único. Además, contrastamos los atributos de las condiciones que facilitan la sustentabilidad en el uso de recursos de uso común, para comprender mejor por qué estas comunidades no han logrado incorporar de manera duradera prácticas de pesca sustentables, a pesar de presentar, en el caso particular de una de ellas, varias condiciones propicias. Adoptamos un enfoque institucional novedoso e integral que incluye instituciones formales e informales, e incorpora los vínculos entre reglas relativas a la tenencia de la tierra (ej. derechos de uso comunales) y del ámbito marino (de pesca y conservación), y sus efectos sobre el cuidado de los recursos marinos, un tópico prácticamente sin abordar en la literatura. Surgen como limitantes importantes en ambos casos, un apoyo gubernamental insuficiente tanto en la provisión de derechos de pesca seguros como en la fiscalización y la aplicación de sanciones, y la falta de reconocimiento e incorporación de arreglos institucionales y capacidades de manejo locales en instancias formales de decisión. Resaltamos el papel fundamental que cumplen los niveles de gobernanza más elevados, los que al estar desvinculados de las prácticas, realidades y necesidades locales, pueden obstaculizar de manera significativa el alcance de la sustentabilidad en pesquerías artesanales, incluso cuando varias condiciones favorables están presentes.Fil: Cinti, Ana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Nacional Patagónico; Argentina. University Of Arizona; Estados UnidosFil: Duberstein, Jennifer N.. University Of Arizona; Estados UnidosFil: Torreblanca, Esteban. Pronatura Noroeste, A.C.; ArgentinaFil: Moreno Báez, Marcia. University Of Arizona; Estados Unido

Lejos de los focos, las vacunas españolas contra la COVID prosiguen su avance para ser una alternativa a medio plazo

Tres de los sueros españoles más prometedores, desarrollados a partir de viruela atenuada, ADN recombinante y replicones de ADN, cuentan además con la ventaja de una conservación relativamente sencilla. En medio de los anuncios en cascada de grandes farmacéuticas sobre sus avances en la vacuna contra la COVID-19, varios grupos científicos españoles prosiguen sus investigaciones para conseguir un suero eficaz contra la epidemia en el que no se dependa del exterior.N

Use of length-frequency analysis for growth estimation of the California two-spotted octopus Octopus bimaculatus Verril 1883 of the Gulf of California

Indirect methods such as length–frequency analysis have not been recommended for growth estimation in octopus (length is not a good measure of size for soft-bodied organisms; size is not a good indicator of age because of the high interindividual variability in growth rates and an asymptotic growth is often assumed). However, these methods are still applied in various places where octopus fisheries exist because they are low cost and easy to apply in most fisheries where there are no financial resources or scientific capacity to use direct methods. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether length–frequency analysis is an appropriate method for determining the growth pattern of Octopus bimaculatus from the Gulf of California. We tested the widely used methods ELEFAN I and NSLCA, and a modal progression analysis with a multimodel approach. The results showed that the growth pattern of O. bimaculatus was reasonably described using these analyses. First, the suitability of using mantle length as a measure of size was confirmed through a significant length–weight relationship. A length–age key was also generated in terms of probability to take into account the variability in growth rates, and with the multimodel approach it was not necessary to assume asymptotic growth. Population size structure is the most readily obtained and probably the most commonly used or only available information in a large number of fisheries. Therefore, the usefulness of length–frequency analyses should not be underestimated when direct methods are available

LoRaWAN Applied to Agriculture: A Use Case for Automated Irrigation Systems

N/

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Postoperative Neurosurgical Infections at a Reference Center in México

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major global impact on the treatment of hospitalized surgical patients. Our study retrospectively evaluates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic at a neurosurgical reference center in Mexico City. We compared the number of neurosurgeries, the rate and type of postoperative infections, the causative microorganisms and in-hospital mortality rates in a 4-year period, from the pre-pandemic year 2019 until 2022. A total of 4150 neurosurgical procedures were registered. In 2020 the total number of surgeries was reduced by 36% compared to 2019 OR = 0.689 (95% CI 0.566–0.834) p ≤ 0.001, transnasal/trans sphenoidal pituitary resections decreased by 53%, and spinal surgeries by 52%. The rate of neurosurgical infections increased from 3.5% in 2019 to 5.6% in 2020 (p = 0.002). Regarding the microorganisms that caused infections, gram positive cocci accounted for 43.5% of isolates, Klebsiella spp. and Pseudomonas spp. caused one third of the infections. No significant differences were found for in-hospital mortality nor patterns of resistance to antibiotics. The number of surgeries increased in the last two years, although the infection rate has returned to pre-pandemic levels. We observed a lower impact from subsequent waves of COVID-19 and despite an increase in the number of surgeries, the surgeries have not amounted to the full pre-pandemic levels