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FACTORS AFFECTING THE SUCCESS OF FISHERIES MANAGEMENT IN A MEXICAN FISHERY Silvia Salas and Ricardo Torres * Fisheries Centre, University of British Columbia, 2204 Main Mall. V6T 1Z4 Vancouver, B.C. Canada. ABSTRACT Fisheries regulation system in Mexico mainly involves control of fishing effort inputs. However, the multispecies nature of most Mexican fisheries, where fishers target different species with the same gears and vessels, makes difficult to control fishing effort. In this paper, we describe the fisheries’ legislation, the fishers’ organizations structure, and the status of the main resources in Yucatan, Mexico. The feasible consequence of recent changes in legislation is also discussed. Information obtained from official documents, research reports, catches statistics, as well as from a questionnaire survey carried out in the fishing communities, was used in this study. The lack of control in the number of organizations that are active in this region is evident. Even though the number of cooperatives remains stable in recent years, there is evidence of uncontrolled increases in other kind of organizations. Thus, the spatial and temporal distribution of the fleet is not well known. On the other hand, recent changes in fishery’s law now allow the participation of private companies and foreign capital on lobster fishery. This situation has lead the opportunity for increasing fishing effort on several fishing resources. To ensure the sustainability of these fisheries, it is necessary to improve the knowledge of the resources and their users, and foreseen the possible consequences of recent changes in the current policies to define enforceable management strategies.
INTRODUCTION Fisheries play an important role in developed and developing countries, providing employment and revenues to 200 million people directly or indirectly. Nevertheless, many fisheries are operating with excess capacity, overcapitalization, economic inefficiency and biological overexploitation (Gracia & Newton, 1994).
Mexico is not an exception to these global trends, even though fisheries have been an important source of food, employment and foreign earnings in the development of some regions. However, gradual adjustments to the policies instead of long-term programs have evolved to overexploitation in some of the most valuable fisheries and into underutilization of many others. Ineffective management tactics, uncontrolled access to fisheries resources, lack of enforcement of fisheries regulation, limited reliable data for planning and stock assessment, and uncertainty in the resource dynamics and market information, have been identified as related problems to the lack of definition in the management process (Vazquez-Leon and Mcguire, 1993; Arreguin et al. 1987).
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Government role in generating employment and foreign exchange, or in gaining political power, had stimulated increases in fleet size in different regions. From 1982 to 1992, small-scale fleet has been expanded in more than 30,000 units
In Yucatan, increase in number of boats has meant increase in the number of organizations which have exploited fishing resources in the last 10 years (Pare and Fraga, 1994). However, it was done without considering recommendations from different scientists who pointed out, since 1987, the need of reducing the fishing effort in grouper and octopus fisheries (Arreguin et al., 1987; Seijo et al., 1987). Based on the review of the status of the main fishing resources and fishers’ organization in Yucatan, as well as on a survey carried out in 15 fishing communities in Yucatan, the contradictory policies to foster employment and foreign earnings, and the goal of sustaining the resources, are discussed.
National Overview The national fleet comprised nearly 75,000 vessels, of which the small scale fleet represents over 95%. Consequently most of the fishing effort is concentrated in the coastal zone (Programa Pesca 1995-2000), exerting a tremendous pressure on it.
In the last five years, commercial fleet has been reduced in some cases (tuna fishery) or has been stabilized in others (trawlers). Furthermore, artisanal fleet has increased, supporting migration of people who has been displaced from other economic activities (Fraga 1992, Pare & Fraga 1994, Semarnap 1996).
Legal access to commercial fishing is through fishing concessions (lasting from 5 to 20 years), and fishing permits (lasting 4 years); for scientific or academic fishing, authorizations are required. Management tactics include controlling the number of fishers, size of their boats and kind of gears, as well as establishing minimum legal sizes, quotas and closed seasons.
Fisheries management is centralized in SEMARNAP (Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources and Fisheries). Decisions made by the Minister must be enforced by local staff depending on the Regional Fisheries Delegations. In the case of cooperatives, there is a self-regulatory system, by which fishers define their own enforcement tactics, according to rules stated by general agreements within local organizations (Fig. 1).
In the next section, Yucatan fisheries are described as an example of the contradictory regulations commanding in Mexico, focus mainly on input control, and on the other hand, increasing fishing pressure through socio-economic programs developed and implemented by the government.
Yucatan Fisheries
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The fishery Around 40 species are captured off the coast of Yucatan, yet 80% of the landings is consisting of three species: red grouper (Ephinephelus morio), octopus (Octopus maya) and spiny lobster (Panulirus argus). Other species caught in the region are: demersal fishes (snappers, porgies), sharks and small pelagic fishes.
Octopus and grouper are caught by artisanal and commercial fleets. Lobsters are captured only by artisanal boats (Seijo et al. 1994; Solis, 1994). Groupers are also caught by Cuban fishers, who have a quota established by an international agreement between Mexico and Cuba governments (Fig 2).
Total fleet in Yucatan includes nearly 4000 vessels, from which 85% are artisanal boats distributed in 15 fishing communities along the coast. Most of them are multiple purpose (Burgos et al., 1991), switching gears to catch demersal fishes, lobster or octopus. In general, there are no reliable records of the spatial allocation of the fleet and of the number of fishers' organizations involved in the activity. On top of that, regulatory tactic are minimal (Table 1).
In the last 20 years, Yucatan coastal zone has been seen as an alternative of employment for people who depended on agricultural activities. From 1970 to 1990, fishers’ number increased by 300% (Pare and Fraga, 1994), making very difficult to control the inputs and outputs of the fisheries.
Status of the main fishing resources in Yucatan coast. Landing records of the main species in the last 20 years, shows high variability, falling to the lowest level in 1983 for grouper and lobster, and in 1988 for octopus. At the beginning of the 90's, the catch has mainly declining for the three of them (Figure 3).
Population parameters of most of the valuable fisheries have been estimated independently (Table 2). However, most of the studies carried out in the area have focused on grouper and octopus (Table 3). On the other hand, studies on other species are limited mainly to estimate growth and mortality, but they had used partial data from the fishery.
In the case of lobster, most of the available information comes from the commercial catch of the artisanal fleet, thus only a fraction of the population had been considered in stock assessment (Arceo et al., 1994). Also, due to the migratory characteristics of the stock, recruitment patterns and stock-recruitment relationships have not been well defined.
Since 1987 it has been suggested the need to control fishing effort on grouper and octopus (Arreguin-Sanchez et al., 1987; Seijo et al., 1987). At the same time, in the lobster fishery further development has been considered; changes
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in catch technology were promoted to this purpose; however, the biological capacity of the stock has not been assessed (Arreguin-Sanchez et al., 1987; Seijo et al., 1994; Torres and Salas, in press).
Even though has been pointed out by several scientist (Hilborn and Walters, 1992), that a harvest strategy sets out how the catch taken from a specific stock should be adjusted year to year, depending on different factors, such as biology, ecology, socio-economic and uncertainty related with the resource, market and environment , few studies done in Yucatan have considered the socio-economic framework of the fishery (Seijo et al., 1987; Hernandez, 1995), and even less have evaluated alternative management objectives (Diaz-DeLeon and Seijo 1992).
The users The socio-economic sectors involved in Yucatan fisheries are private and social ones. The former has the means to harvest, process, and sell fishing products, and to build vessels. It owns 96 plants distributed along the coast. In the social sector, fishers' tend to organize in groups to obtain credits (mainly from the government), for purchasing their boats and motors. Usually they concentrate only in the harvest. They do not own the infrastructure for processing catch or for building vessels.
The participation of fishers that do not belong to any of these sectors (free fishers) is common. These people can be employed by the private sector or can work for themselves if they have the means to do it.
Private sector comprises 150 members in one organization (Chamber of Fishing Industry). This sector owns 70% of the state artisanal fleet (2,407 vessels), and 85% of the commercial fleet (492 vessels). In the last 10 years, almost 80% of the catches had been taken by this sector, but 64% of that comes from only 36 members (Rosado and Rosado, 1995).
Social sector in Yucatan include three types of fishers’ organizations: cooperatives (36), rural societies (46) and "solidarity societies" (98).
A survey done in 1994 along the coast, showed that only 47% of the 180 organizations, which include 3,958 fishers, were registered in the National Fisheries Register; as a consequence, catch landings were misreported, because only 72 organizations reported their catches that year. From those catches, 80% was recorded by cooperatives, and the remaining 20% by the rural societies and the solidarity societies (Sepesca internal report, 1992).
To clarify the context of the organizations constitution, it is considered important to describe the origin of the different groups and the political factors that promoted their constitution. According to this, three periods in the dynamics of fisheries in Yucatan, can be identified.
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First period (1958-1980). In 1958 Federal government gave the exclusive right to cooperatives to exploit the most profitable species (shrimp, abalone, lobster, conch, oyster), which encourage fishers to create more groups. In that period, 28 cooperatives were registered, to end up with 36 in 1994.
Second period (1980-1989). At the beginning of the 1980's due to the market crisis in the henequen industry (american agave), government assisted peasants to migrate to the coast and become fishers as an economic alternative (Fraga, 1992). Incentives included the creation of a training centre in fishing activities, providing soft credits to purchase boats and motors (Fraga, 1990), and "paying" peasants during the time they took the training courses. Consequently, from 1980 to 1988, 46 rural societies were created. However, Pare and Fraga (1994) point out that 80% of the people who took those courses attended them as an economic alternative in the short-term, more than as a future choice of employment in the fishery.
Third period. (1989 -1993) One of the priorities in Yucatan at that time, seemed to be switching from artisanal to commercial fishing, in order to increase production and reduce fishing pressure in the coastal zone. It motivated the creation of a different kind of group, called solidarity societies, which includes both traditional fishers and peasants recently incorporated to the fisheries. Government gave them credits to obtain boats and equipment. There was no control over the number of groups created, and no plan to define how many organizations the program could support. At this time, other 98 organizations were registered.
It is interesting to note that from 1958 to 1980, 1.3 cooperatives were registered in average per year, while from 1980 to 1993, rate increased to 11 groups per year, including solidarity and rural societies.
Because of grouping more traditional fishers, having a higher level of organization, owning more boats, landing more captures, and having a special treatment into the fisheries legislation, cooperatives deserve a special mention, regarding recent modifications in the corresponding law.
Cooperatives and changes in legislation. In 1994 changes in legislation were approved regarding to: a) there are no reserved species any longer. Any proponent, individually or collectively, is able to request for a concession to exploit former reserved species in a defined area; and, b) foreign people (no necessarily fishers) are allowed to be member of any cooperative. In this condition, national and foreign capital of non organized people, now have access to exploit most valuable, former reserved, species.
During a long period, government has been providing financial aid for a long time to cooperatives and other organizations; however, since national budget became smaller and subsidies decreased, industrial companies have taken out government’s role as financial providers. Under such conditions, fishers have to sell their catches to those
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companies. In this relation, fishers don’t have control on the price they receive, and companies may change prices at their convenience.
Under these circumstances, cooperatives can not compete with private sector for the exploitation of valuable species. Given the changes in legislation, the expectation of increase incomes might attract private investment to incorporate new technology into this fishery. This situation might contain a risk if it opens the access to other resources, once the fleet settles in the region.
Discussion The history of Mexican fisheries illustrates heterogeneity of objectives, which attempt to satisfy different users and particular goals under different political contexts. Most of these goals have faced the short term yield and revenues versus the long term expected returns.
It seems that the implementation of programs which give alternatives to certain groups, depending on immediate priorities or political goals, have failed. In attempting to solve a problem in a particular area, government has generated conflicts in others. To promote economic growth and social equity, some programs have been developed, but at the same time, they had increased pressure in fishery resources, through intense immigration to coastal zones. Alike, recent changes in legislation of the "reserved species" seems to go in the same direction, through opening access to those species. Most of the changes have given privileges to the private sector, which already controls the whole phases in the fishery. This figure is not exclusive to Yucatan, similar situation have been reported in other states (Sada, 1984; Diaz et al., 1984; Ortiz, 1993; Vazquez-Leon and Mcguire, 1993); and other countries as Norway (Jentoft and , 1995).
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In Yucatan, only lobster and octopus have close seasons; however, as fishers can switch gears to catch different species (Burgos et al., in press), once they have access to one fishery, they can have access to others, including those are temporary protected.
Information on harvest rate tendencies, on changes in stock density, and on the spatial allocation of the fleet in Yucatan fisheries, must be considered in order to make efficient decisions on management.
A new relationship between fishers and government must be developed to complement an efficient fisheries management system. Truly effective fisher’s participation mechanisms should be implemented, allowing fishers a real participation in the management decision-making process (Stollery, 1988; Hilborn and Walters, 1992; Hilborn et al., 1995).
Government needs to avoid policies that focus on short-term goals. It is necessary to define proper policies in pursuit of sustainability in the fishery system. These approaches include improvement in the local control of fishing effort, establishment of appropriate property right system to control access, and combination of comprehensive planning with economic diversification, to cope with resource system complexity.
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