Oro de Cortez Part 3

Oro de Cortez Part 2

Oro de Cortez Part 1

This video is fantastic - it clearly sums up the ongoing battle over fisheries management in the Sea of Cortez. Minerva Smith from Cabo San Lucas and Baja California Sur's Senator Coppala are great advocates for protecting this fantastic resource.

FONMAR

The following was copied from a thread on the Baja Nomads Forum posted by Don Alley - it is an email update from The Billfish Foundation:

"What Your Fishing License Fees Can Do

Illegal Fishing Bust in Mag BayCommunity based enforcement efforts supported by The Billfish Foundation (TBF) through the Baja California Sur Center for Marine Protection and funded by the recreational fishing license fees paid to FONMAR have resulted in three recent seizures of illegally harvested dorado. TBF was instrumental in getting FONMAR established so that angler's license fees would go directly to assisting conservation and protection of the fish resources.

Three weeks ago, a vessel was seized in Loreto and, this past weekend, two boats owned by commercial longline king Henry Collard were seized and charged with illegally harvesting dorado while using a shark permit in Magdelena Bay. Collard, a prominent representative of commercial fishing interests, was reported in El Sudcaliforniano to have threatened fisheries enforcement agents that he "is a personal friend of Ramon Corral and you can't do this to me!" This statement does not do much for Corral's already tainted image by accusations of wrong doing by his own Conapesca personnel.

Corral is the head of Mexico's fisheries agency CONAPESCA and has been an unyielding supporter of the shark Nom-029 that attempted to allow the "incidental" harvest of billfish, dorado and other species within Mexico's 24 year old conservation
zones.

Apparently the recent interest of U.S. enforcement officials in the import of illegally caught dorado has persuaded CONAPESCA that they need to concede TBF's position that there is no basis in Mexican law to allow bycatch in the conservation zones and enforce the federal fisheries law," said TBF President Ellen Peel. Full details of the story will follow in the upcoming issue of Billfish magazine."

Fishing Licenses

From the BajaBigFish.com webpage:

If you will find yourself fishing off the coast of BAJA CALIFORNIA SUR in the near future, consider yourself lucky because only in this state do we have the option to purchase our Mexican sportfishing licenses at the State Finance Office and not directly via the federal government's fund (CONAPESCA). What's great about this is that the funds from these licenses bought in the state STAY in the state. Right now the monies are going toward a fund called FONMAR which is usually used for marine conservation and education but now it is being used to legally overturn NOM 029, the Shark Norma. So as much as I love those travel clubs like Vagabundos del Mar and Discover Baja, and as much as it may be more convenient to purchase your license through these services, the fact is that the money for licenses paid this way stays with the feds who invent seriously stupid laws like NOM 029. Buy your fishing license though your local outfitter in BCS and your money will go towards preserving the Sea of Cortez fishery for the future. I see my Loreto-born children catching nice fish almost every day off our shores and I want their children to have the same chance so, BUY YOUR FISHING LICENSE DIRECTLY THROUGH YOUR BAJA CALIFORNIA SUR FISHING OUTFITTER. Do NOT buy it stateside because that money you work so hard for will go right to the feds who are in the back pocket of the commercial fishing industry.

Unlike the US where the fees for your hunting and fishing licenses are used to fund state fish and game agencies in the state they are sold in, funds from fishing license sales in Mexico historically have disappeared off to Mexico City never to be seen again. However with the creation of FONMAR, Baja California Sur is in a unique position to reinvest license fees in protection of the resource.