Cedo Intercultural - Upper Gulf Coastal Fisheries

Upper Gulf Coastal Fisheries

When the first management program for the Upper Gulf of California/Colorado River Delta Biosphere Reserve was written, insufficient information was available to propose management guidelines for small scale fisheries. In response to this need, and with funding from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, CEDO initiated the first comprehensive study of the dynamics of small scale fisheries in the upper Gulf region in 1996.

Some of the most important outcomes of this work include:

1. Voces del Mar, a Spanish language newspaper distributed to the communities of the Upper Gulf (1996-1998), later expanded to Voces del Mar y del Desierto.

2. Cudney Bueno y Turk Boyer 1998. “Pescando Entre Mareas del Alto Golfo de California: Una Guía sobre la Pesca Artesanal, La Gente y sus Propuestas de Manejo," (Fishing Between the Tides: A Guide to Artisanal Fishing, Its People and Proposals for Management). The report is published in Spanish and currently out of print, but an online version is available below in PDF format. Click on the blue link to access the report, as it is divided up into different sections. It is a comprehensive resource on the dynamics of small-scale fisheries in the three primary communities of the Upper Gulf of California. It identifies the primary fisheries, fishing zones, seasons, reproduction of target species, and equipment used in fishing. It also involves fishermen in providing their insights on management. This study provided the most precise information available to determine the overlap of different fisheries with the distribution of the vaquita porpoise.
* Click on the blue links to open the PDF versions of the report, which is divided up into eight sections.
- “Pescando Entre Mareas del Alto Golfo de California"

- Contenido
- Introducción & Sección 1: Antecedentes
     - Capítulo 1: Historia de la Pesca Artesanal en el Alto Golfo de California
     - Capítulo 2: La Reserva de la Biosfera Alto Golfo y Delta del Río Colorado
- Sección II: Las Pesquerías
- Capítulo 3 y 4 (Primera Parte)
     - Capítulo 3: Introducción a las Pesquerías
     - Capítulo 4: La Pesca con Chinchorros (Primera Parte)
- Capítulo 4: La Pesca con Chinchorros (Segunda Parte)
- Capítulo 5: La Pesca con Cimbras
- Capítulo 6: La Pesca de Buceo
- Capítulo 7 - 9
     - Capítulo 7: La Pesca con Trampas
     - Capítulo 8: La Pesca con Otros Equipos
     - Capítulo 9: Un Panorama Global: zonificación, tiempos de pesca y períodos reproductivos de las principales pesquerías
- Sección III: Opiniones y Propuestas de Manejo
- Capítulo 10: Opiniones y Propuestas de los Pescadores
- Capítulo 11: Recomendaciones y Conclusiones
- Literatura Citada
- Anexo I - V
     - Anexo I: Mapa Batimétrico del Alto Golfo
     - Anexo II: Resumen de Metodología
     - Anexo III: Directorio de Contactos
     - Anexo IV: Especies Comerciales Capturadas en la Pesca Artesanal
     - Anexo V: Glosario de Términos Utilizados en la Pesca Artesanal

3. One of the important recommendations of this study was that follow up for developing management actions should begin by working on particular fisheries and zones. This led us to initiate the project “Co-Management of Benthic Resources with Commercial Divers of Puerto Peñasco," which is ongoing today.

TIDE BITS: Black Murex

These fist-sized predatory snails have been harvested by local commercial divers since the early 1990s. The snail’s habit of forming massive spawning aggregations makes it vulnerable and an easy catch. With the divers harvest increasing through the 1990s, the population began to show serious signs of decline. Concerned, the divers approached CEDO to try to better manage this and other benthic mollusks, such as snails, clams and relatives that live on the ocean bottom.