Article Category: Mexico Fisheries

Baja California Sur Fisheries Remain Eye of Political Storm

Baja California Sur Fisheries Remain Eye of Political Storm

Governments and interest groups continue to spar over IUU fishing and endangered species. The last of the world’s smallest porpoises, Chinese demand for “cocaine of the sea,” endangered fish bladders and red snapper poaching are all factors in an international political storm over the commercial fisheries of Baja California Sur of Mexico. A flurry of diplomatic overtures and the dangling threat of U.S. trade restrictions on Mexican fish imports looms as 2024 emerges as something of a crossroads year. A larger-than-normal dead-zone forecast probably isn’t helping the situation. Worsening U.S.-Mexico Fisheries Relations As Fishermen’s News has reported in the past, Baja California waters have been affected by unsustainable fishing practices and criminal enterprises for years. Previous ...
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Regional Update: Mexico’s West Coast Fisheries

Regional Update: Mexico’s West Coast Fisheries

The Gulf of California, also known as the Sea of Cortez, is the body of water south of Southern California that separates Mexico’s Baja California peninsula from the country’s mainland. It’s one of the more productive and biodiverse marine ecoregions in the world and a bustling area for commercial fishing. And although there are plenty of legitimate, law-abiding anglers earning a living fishing in the waters, there’s also a number of bad actors who make money by illegally trafficking some fish species to sell them on the black market. In the U.S., much of the news disseminated about crime in Mexico focuses on land activity, the country’s cartels also have a hold on some of the illicit activity that occurs offshore. However, like with land-based crime, Mexican authorities are waged in a...
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