Mexican Marlin Fisheries and New Longline Permits -- Archive

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Subject: Mexican Marlin Fisheries and New Longline Permits

Author:
Jim Morris

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Date Posted: 949478317PST

The following is an email that I had received from Mike McGettigan:

Dear Jim:

Please pass this on to the people and lists you did before. Have people
answer me directly if you want. My problem with getting on any lists is that
I'm getting and answering e-mail from the boat at 4800 baud and $1.39/minute
airtime.

Here is what we have been able to more or less substantiate. There are
between 15-25 boats in Ensenada that are being or have been recently
outfitted for longlining. Many are net boats that were in the sardine (none
left) and other reduction fisheries. They are being set up with state of the
art monofilament longline gear 40-60 miles, liquid nitrogen bait freezers(?),
etc. Outside boats coming in are primarily from the East Coast. One source
(owns boats in Ensenada) said that he hasn't seen specifically any Hawaiian
boats rerigging (why would they?). I'm waiting to hear back from the person
that said there were Hawaiian boats coming for the new Mexican longline
permits. The main point is not where the boats are coming from, it is the
fact that they are coming and the permits are apparently going to be issued.

One of the longline boats (Humano) currently working off Mag Bay is off
loading in San Carlos about 8-10 tons of billfish every 6-8 days. I don't
think there is anything illegal about it. It just gives you an idea of what
will happen if the fishery dramatically increases with new inshore permits.
For example, 20 boats already have permits, add to that another 20 boats and
40 boats X 8 tons/ week = 640,000 lbs of dead billfish plus other by-catch a
week. I was talking to a commercial fisherman from Ensenada who has outfitted
many drift gillnet boats for Mexican use in the last 14 years (worse than
longliners). His assessment is that you will see major declines in the Marlin
along the Baja coast in the next two years. Add that to the declines that
already exist and it looks like a disaster for the remaining Stripped Marlin.
(See below)

NEW LONGLINE PERMITS - The new longline permits (NORMA DE PESCA DE TIBURON -
DIARY OFFICIAL JANUARY 12, 2000) will be permits to longline sharks inside
the 50 mile offshore longline limit. No one seems to know how many PESCA will
issue. There are about 20 longline boats with permits currently in the
Ensenada swordfish fishery. They have been lobbying the Sportsfishing and
Hotel Associations to get their backing to legalize swordfishing inside the
50 mile limit and together fight the introduction of the new permits for
longlining sharks. The Captains of the existing boats agree that the new
shark longline permits would be devastating to the billfish. They say the
boats will target the billfish first and sharks second. They also said the
price for Stripped Marlin in Japan is very high and going up? (any truth).
This (as I said before) looks like it puts longlines directly in the path of
Stripped Marlin and whale migrations.

If anyone has any information, please let us know. The Sportsfishing Assoc.
of Cabo San Lucas would like any information that would help substantiate the
destructive and indiscriminate nature of the longline fishery. They have
several publications, but would like information about boats that were forced
to leave other areas because of the destructive nature of their fishing
techniques.

STRIPPED MARLIN OFF MEXICO'S WEST COAST ALREADY IN TROUBLE - We received some
e-mail about the health of the Marlin around Cabo and on the Pacific side of
the Baja. Some even suggested that the fishery was probably in good shape.
Let me give you some data that would strongly dispute that. There are no
formal current quantitative studies that I know of (are there?). Here is some
input from people that are and have been involved in the fisheries on a daily
basis for many years. They are fleet owners and make their money from
tourists coming to catch Marlin. They are not prone to exaggerate Marlin
declines, in fact they would tend to lean the other way.

Marco and Tracy Ehrenberg (Pisces Fleet and President of the Sportsfishing
Assoc. in Cabo) say that in the last 10 the years the number of Marlin in and
around the Cabo area have decreased 40% and during that time the average
weight has dropped from 170 lb to about 110 to 120 lb. About 25% of all the
stripped marlin caught 12 years ago were over 200 lbs (a few over 300 lb).
Neither can remember when they saw the last 200 lb stripped marlin caught
(certainly nothing in the last few years). Tracy says the average number of
Marlin caught last year by the Pisces Fleet was about 1.5 per boat per
fishing day down from over 3 ten years ago.

Tony Berkowitz who has had a fishing fleet of 1-6 boats in Cabo for the last
14 year says that in 1990 their average boat catch of Marlin was over 3.2
Marlin per fishing day, it is now under 1.5 Marlin per fishing day and the
boats are using over 3 times the fuel to do that. (sounds consistent).

Carlos Ungson who built the Hotel Cabo San Lucas with Bud Parr in 1960 and
was one of the first sports boat captains on the Baja says the number of
Marlin are down more than 80% from the early 1970s. My own observations
(having caught and released over 1500 marlin) from the late 1970s till now
are that the marlin numbers are down about 70% in and around Cabo. I have
fished these waters 9-10 months a year, every year since 1978.

There are now over 800 Mexican sports boats registered to fish Marlin (not
counting 300-500 American yachts in the Marinas at Cabo and La Paz) between
the East Cape and Cabo San Lucas, up from less than 80 boats 15 years ago.
Anyway you look at it, the Marlin are in big trouble, even before you bring
longlines inside the 50 mile limit and put them directly in the path of the
migrating Marlin.

If anyone has additional information on this subject, please let us know. It
would be nice to further quantify it. We look forward to your input.

Mike McGettigan
Founder - Sea Watch
3939 N Marine Dr. #12
Portland, OR 97217
USA phone/fax 503-285-3673
Mexico phone/fax 011-52-114-87882

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