Vaquita.tv

We are currently in year one of a two-year ‘save the vaquita’ conservation plan. But as scientist Lorenzo Rojas Bracho pointed out in recent papers and in my interview with him, “in order to take care of the vaquita, we have to take care of the fishermen”. Local fishermen are permitted to fish one of three species, shrimp, finfish or shark and ray, but all use the same type of gillnets.

The buyout as most people refer to it- the buying back of gillnets, engines and boats, is a bit more complicated than it first appears. There are actually three components, a buyout, a rent-out, and a switch out. All of which are entirely voluntary.

In 2007, the buyout consisted of two programs.

Alternative livelihoods (Buy-out)
Alternative gear (Rent-out)
The alternative livelihoods program (also known as the ‘buyout’), meant fishermen were required to turn in only their fishing permits if they wanted to set up a new business. This means that although permits were taken, the boats and their gear were still in the fishermen’s possession, meaning that there was a high probability of fishermen now using those same boats and gear to fish illegally.

Another characteristic of this first program was that alternative livelihoods were restricted to tourism related activities and other fishing related activities (working in refrigerated rooms, aquaculture, etc). Fishers had to apply to the government to participate in the buy-out program.

According to Catalina, the lack of control over the now “illegal” boats and the restrictions in viable alternative activities were not well received by local communities. Fishermen believed there should be many more alternative livelihood options that would guarantee them a respectable income. Also, they requested stricter measures in order to ensure the problem of illegal fishing would not grow.

The results of the 2007 buy-out were:

San Felipe:
Alternative livelihoods: 12 applications
Alternative fishing gear: 10 applications
Total permits eliminated: 21 finfish and 3 shrimp
Golfo de Santa Clara:
Alternative livelihoods: 22 applications
Total permits eliminated: 25 finfish
Puerto Peñasco:
Alternative livelihoods: 17 applications
Total permits eliminated: 19 finfish
2008
The second buy-out program was designed differently and included modifications that reflected a more realistic way of meeting the needs of fishermen and the communities. It allowed fishermen to establish any type of business they wanted to. The second buy-out program also offered a third option. The ‘rent out’ option was the result of the urgency to get gillnets out of vaquita habitat in order to guarantee zero incidental catch mortality.

This buy-out program began in June 2008 and fishermen began receiving their funds towards the end of August 2008.

There are three options in the 2008 buy-out program
(Please note that conversion rate is 12 pesos to 1 US Dollar.)

Alternative livelihood (Buy-out) – This means fishermen turn in one or several permits with their respective boat, engine and fishing gear and set up a new business. There are three categories in this option depending on the # of permits someone turns in:
1 permit: $400,000 pesos
2 permits: $500,000 pesos
3 or more permits: $600,000 pesos
Rent-out – (also known as “Biodiversity Conservation Activities:”) Fishermen are paid to not go into the Refuge and use gillnets. They are not required to turn in permits since they are only required to respect the refuge and other no-take areas from the biosphere reserve. It’s payout varied on where the boat is based.
$45,000 pesos (San Felipe, B.C.)
$35,000 pesos (Golfo de Santa Clara and Puerto Peñasco, Sonora)
Alternative fishing gears – (switch-out) Turn in gillnets and begin using “vaquita safe” gear (pots, hook and line, long lines, etc.). This option does not require fishermen to give up their permits; however they do have to turn them in so they are modified to specifically say the type of gear they are allowed to use.
Anyone who chose this option received $300,000 pesos.
On October 29th 2008, José Campoy Favela, Director of the Biosphere reserve presented the results of the 2008 program at the 2008 NACAP meeting in Mexicali.

Alternative livelihood (Buy-out)
Total invested: $107,800,000 pesos
Golfo de Santa Clara: $41,300,000 pesos (71 applications)
San Felipe: $39,000,000 pesos (50 applications)
Puerto Peñasco: $24,500,000 pesos (32 applications)
Rent-out
Total invested: $20,540,000 pesos
Golfo de Santa Clara: $13,440,000 pesos (384 applications)
San Felipe: $7,065,000 pesos (157 applications)
Puerto Peñasco: $35,000 pesos (1 applications)
Alternative fishing gears (“Switch-Out”)
Total invested: $27,600,000 pesos
Golfo de Santa Clara: $2,700,000 pesos (9 applications)
San Felipe: $23,100,000 pesos (38 applications)
Puerto Peñasco: $2,700,000 pesos (4 applications)
What struck me most about the buyout is who is actually being taken care of in this plan. In the upper gulf, there is a distinction between fishermen and boat-owners. A boat-owner may hold the permits and own multiple pangas (local fishing boats), while hiring people to do the actual fishing for them.

So when statistics for the buyout, rent-out, switch-out, and really tallied, one has to take a note of caution. Boat-owners may be taken care of to a certain degree. Fishermen who are not boat-owners may actually slip through the cracks of this program.

Within all of this, I am still left scratching my head at the New York Times article stating the 800 fishers have been bought-out. Maybe they are counting each fisher that lost their job when the owner received funds for the ‘alternative livelihood’ project?

Fishing is an extremely competitive practice. Another question raised is who would want to change from a gill net to the alternative gear (including a trap or hook and line system) that catches far less, if others are still using gillnets and catching far more.

In the 2007 buyout, very few shrimp permits were eliminated. These are the most valuable of all of the permits a fishermen (or boat-owner) has. So this volunteer buyout may be just that, an expensive exercise in volunteer conservation.

Will it work?

The fishermen I spoke with told me that early rain in the season has helped ensure this is a “good” shrimp season. Because fishermen are generally doing well, the enforcement of the vaquita refuge has gone fairly well. The next shrimp season in 2009 will dictate a lot about whether this buyout will work or the law prohibiting gillnets in the vaquita refuge will still be enforced; especially if there is not a lot of rain, and therefore, less shrimp. I do know that we will have to wait for at least another year to see if the buyout plan is actually working and if the plan needs to change once again.