Proposed Loreto Park Plan

Pam at the Baja Big Fish Company has posted the proposed management zones for the new 5-year plan for Loreto Bay National Marine Park.

The success of the proposed management plan will depend largely on enforcement and participation by all park users. While I am sad to loose Puerto Escondido, I think the No Take Zones, if enforced, will provide space for fish populations to recover and should provide for excellent fishing in the surrounding areas in the future.

Red = no fishing zone - this includes no catch and release

Exclusion Zone I - No gill netting or collection netting.

Exclusion Zone II - Commercial fishing with net size 4 or greater October through February.

Exclusion Zone III - Netting Sierra Mackerel is allowed.

Exclusion Zone IV - Confinement netting of Yellowtail is allowed by methods of with net size 5 or greater (no distinction of seasons are defined)

Green = enclosure netting is permitted.

Extraction of ornamental fish that are used in the aquarium trade is permitted in zones I through IV.

Leopard Grouper in Loreto

With the start of the management plan revision for Loreto Bay National Park I thought it would be good to post a link to this important paper on Leopard Grouper:

Viability Analysis of Reef Fish Populations Based on Limited Demographic Information

Despite the title this relatively straight forward scientific paper documents the condition of Leopard Grouper in Loreto Bay National Park. While the populations of fast growing, migratory, yellowtail, dorado, and sailfish appear to be maintaining decent populations and produce outstanding sport fishing opportunities, the inshore reef dwelling fish are vulnerable to sport fishing and are devastated by netting.

The new management plan needs to protect Leopard Grouper and other depressed populations from consumptive use. Its a perfect opportunity to experiment with no-take catch and release areas to provide for continued sport fishing - the economic base of Loreto, while rebuilding populations. Obviously, elimination of inshore gill netting in these depressed populations is key to preventing further declines.

Mulege Snook

Over on the Baja Nomads forums there is talk of snook in the Mulege "River":

Mulege Snook

Sounds like a decent fishery is developing after the post hurricane work done along the flooded arroyo mouth. There is even a mention of a broken 8 weight rod! The Mulege area suffers from high levels of gill netting an shrimp trawling and the resident fishery is in fairly bad shape. As long as the gill nets stay out of the river this could develop into something. We'll keep our eyes on it.

Please do your part to protect this fishery and release all fish. I think given the sanitation problems along the river it would be fairly questionable to eat fish from this small estuary so let them grow!!! There is plenty of other great tasting fish to eat.

Common Sense

Here's an article I found in the El Sudcaliforniano. Basically it says that a local conservation organization, Grupo Ecologista Antares, has called for a moritorium on commercial fishing when fish are concentrated in spawning periods. Species like Cabrilla and Yellowtail form large dense schools where communal spawning and egglaying take place.

Protecting spawning schools of fish from commerical fishing - especially in a National Park - seems like common sense to me.

Propondrá GEA que se vede la captura de algunas especies
El Sudcaliforniano
26 de enero de 2009
Javier Chávez Davis

Loreto, Baja California Sur.- Para evitar el saqueo de especies marinas en épocas de reproducción, el Grupo Ecologista Antares (GEA A.C.) propondrá a las autoridades que se vede la captura de algunas especies en un periodo de entre tres y cinco semanas en ciertas zonas del Parque Nacional Bahía de Loreto.

El presidente de esta organización no gubernamental, Fernando Arcas Sainz, señaló que entre las especies que sufren los estragos de la pesca comercial en época de apareamiento están las siguientes: cabrilla, garropa, pargos, caracol burro, madre perla, almeja chocolate y burra.

Detalló que en los meses de abril y mayo, por ejemplo, muchos pescadores loretanos acostumbran capturar gran cantidad de cabrilla, sin saber que la alta presencia de estos peces en algunos puntos, se debe a que están llevando a cabo su proceso de apareamiento, y si se les pesca pues se interrumpe el proceso de reproducción, poniéndolas en grave riesgo.

GEA lleva está llevando a cabo en este momento un estudio para ubicar las fechas y puntos de agregación reproductiva de varias especies marinas, con el objetivo de dar a conocer la importancia de que tengan la oportunidad de multiplicarse.

La veda que propondremos pretende resguardar básicamente a ejemplares que son de mucho interés para la explotación comercial, principalmente cabrilla y pargo,
indicó.

Resisting Gill Netters on the East Cape

While I thought things were getting a little better on the East Cape, apparently the inshore gill netting continues.

Gill Net Controversy Erupts

Palometa

This Palometa (Yellow Jack) is another of the many fish that have fallen for the 1/0 Clouser Minnow in brown/yellow/white with gold flash. This fish was caught in Puerto Escondido on a very calm January day. Over the last couple of years Puerto Escondido has been spared the pervasive gill nets that plague many inshore areas of the Sea of Cortez and is providing an outstanding fishery. Hopefully, this area will continue to serve as an example of what inshore fishing in Loreto Bay National Park could be like.

Last March, my buddy Dave C. found some great shore fishing here for small yellowtail and roosterfish. Unfortunately, Pam from the Baja Big Fish Company (http://www.bajabigfish.com/) recently reported that staff of SINGULAR, the government agency managing the half-built marina facility, told her that no sport fishing was allowed in the bay. Dave said that during his March visit one of our favorite fishing spots was fenced off. Hopefully, this trend won't continue. This is one of the few sheltered spots on this section of the coast and some of the best fishing in the area that is accessible by car.

I strongly urge everyone to practice catch-and-release in this small bay. Be part of the solution.

Pez Gallo

I know the pictures are terrible but I couldn't resist posting them. While taken with a disposable film camera they are special to me. I had caught Paz Gallo before, including some large ones, but always with conventional gear. This guy was my first on a fly. He took a 1/0 brown and yellow clouser minnow over the reef just north of Loreto between Coronado Island and the mainland. Large schools of rooster fish used to patrol this area but gill netting has really hammered them. You can still find them in the area but its hit or miss.

In January 2006, I arrived days after a commercial panga had wrapped a school of about 100 good sized rooster fish at this spot. Ongoing netting in the Loreto Bay National Park (including this area) continues to impact the fishery. Inshore fish species like the rooster fish are particularly vulnerable. Don't get me wrong there's still a lot of great fishing here but as we have seen at Puerto Escondido just a few seasons without nets can really make a big difference.