Sail Fish on the Hunt

These shots from National Geographic are not from Baja but they are so good I had to share them.

There is also a great video "Sailfish: In the Whirl" at the National Geographic site. Its useful to watch to see the scales and blood of the wounded bait fish that we often try to imitate with our flies.

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.

Hot Action in Loreto

Fishing in Loreto for dorado and sailfish has been hot this summer. Pam at the Baja Big Fish Company finally posted a fishing report and it looks like things have been fun.

More Information on Loreto Bust

There is more information on the bust of an illegal fishing boat near Loreto posted on the:

Baja Big Fish Company Flyfishing Report

"According to the story in the newspaper, this commercial vessel from Mazatlan, was caught North of Loreto and found with 1,300 Kilos of dorado onboard in their storage holds. Along with the Dorado were two small sharks. Under Mexican fisheries law, Dorado is reserved for sport fishing and can only be taken commercially if an incidental catch. Sharks can be caught commercially but only under a shark permit. This boat did not have a shark permit and they were totally illegally fishing the resulting catch. According to the local PROFEPA agents, they responded to repeated calls by local sportfishing pangueros and service providers as this boat was seen longlining for Dorado and filleting Dorado meat at sea.

PROFEPA was unable to investigate due to lack of funding (no gas for patrol boat), so the Loreto Marine Park accompanied them to make the bust. I saw this boat being brought to port at 16:00 on Wednesday before being moved to La Paz. On further interviewing PROFEPA agents on the matter we (Laura Escobasa of Eco Alianza Loreto and myself) were told that their funding ran out two months ago and they no longer have gas for their boats or can maintain their equipment. We are investigating ways in which resources from the purchase of Mexican Sport Fshing Permits and Loreto Marine Park Tickets can be collected and stay in the Loreto area for the purposes of research and enforcement of the laws. We will be posting a survey on tourists awareness about Mexican fishing licenses soon which will help us build the following case: it is a fact that revenue collected in Loreto for the purpose of Mexican fishing licenses is disproportionately higher than the revenue collected from the rest of Baja California Sur and the rest of Mexico, thus those funds should rightly stay in this area in the future."

It looks like a tremendous Dorado season in Loreto this year. Check out the Baja Big Fish Company's conventional report for a cool picture of my buddy, 5 year old Enzl Munoz, with a nice dorado. His parents tell me that he hooked a SAILFISH last year when he was only 4 years old.