 |
Baja Mexico: Magdalena Bay, Baja Sur & East Cape.
Capt. Gary Graham
June 28, 2001
Baja Sur - Saltwater Fishing Report
Sorry for the delay of our Report Southern California Rolling Black outs got us this time.
EAST CAPE, BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
Wed., June 27, 2001
TEMPERATURES: High of 95 with a low of 75. Windy Tuesday afternoon and back to flat calm on Wednesday
STRIPED MARLIN – A few boats reporting multiples.
YELLOWFIN TUNA - Still a few.
DORADO – Quite a few smaller fish this week.
ROOSTERFISH - Good.
JACK CREVALLE – Some large ones along the shore.
BARRILLETE OR MEXICAN SKIPJACK – A few in front of La Ribera.
PARGO AND CABRILLA - Fair action this week at Punta Colorada.
.. OFFSHORE: Marlin and more dorado still mostly the smaller fish schooling up a long way aways.
.. INSHORE: The bite on the reef in front of Rancho Leonero has been great. Golden Jack, pompano, pargo and roosters.
.. BEACH: Both beach and pontoon trips continue to get multiple varieties of
species including jack crevalle, roosters, grouper, pompano and pargo.
.. QUICK COMMENT – Inshore and the beach continue to produce the best results with the larger jacks from the beach being the real crowd pleaser. The pompano and Golden Jacks in front of Rancho Leonero are close enough to fish out of a kayak.
See our new feature Catch of the Week.
http://www.bajafly.com
MAGDALENA BAY, BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
Wed., June 27, 2001
Temperatures: 91-degree high; low in the mid 70's. Fair skies and windy in the afternoon.
TUNA – Few reported.
YELLOWTAIL – Still slow.
CORVINA – Try under the bridge on the way into town.
SNOOK – Good catches in Almejas Bay.
HALIBUT – Several of the Boca’s producing fair catches. .
.. QUICK COMMENT - I just returned from another trip to Magdalena Bay and had the opportunity to fish both the northernmost and southernmost portions of the bay and the fishing was great. Lots of grouper, 2-3 spotted bay bass, corvina, snapper near Boca de Santo Domingo on the first day and then we returned to Puerto San Carlos and left by panga the next morning to fish in Alemejas Bay. On the way down we came across three sardine boats working inside the bay in the Marcy Channel. When I returned to East Cape the following email was waiting for me, which explains the increased activity by the sardine boats.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
> Sent: June 15, 2001 6:53 PM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Doubling the Sardine take at Magdalena Bay
> DOUBLING THE SARDINE CATCH AT MAGDALENA BAY
> Hi Neil:
>
> I received the email below from Chalo and Gail Theurel and felt that it
> needed to be addressed. Any time you play with the lower ends of the food
> chain you play God to a lot of fish farther up the food chain and if you
> are
> wrong about your assessments a lot more jobs will be lost than the 40 or
> so
> you are creating. All the major sports and commercial fish are partially
> dependent on sardines for food. If you lose or divert those stocks (they
> won't stay where there is no food) outside the inshore fishing grounds it
> will cost 1000s of jobs in Mag. Bay and Cabo.
>
> That said, do the following to satisfy yourself that you are making the
> correct decision. Mexico's C.R.I.P. and the INP are scientific bodies like
>
> the NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service) in the US. Their science on
> the
> health of fish stocks and biomass assessments is usually very incomplete.
> In
> the past if they didn't know that a fishery was in trouble, the assumption
>
> was that it was OK and could stand additional fishing pressure. They have
> been wrong most of the time. Remember you are asking the same people that
> oversaw the collapse of the sardine fisheries in Guaymas in the mid 1980s.
>
>
> There are two things you should do to do before allowing a doubling of the
>
> pressure on the sardines around Mag. Bay (if in fact there is any way to
> stop
> it at this point).
>
> First, get the science used by CRIPS that shows that the sardine stocks
> are
> now healthy and can sustain a doubling of the product take to 400
> tons/day.
> What are their biomass assessments and how and when did they get them?
> Then
> ask how they are going to monitor the effects of the increased fishing
> pressure to see that the biomass isn't decreasing.
>
> Second, talk to the sardine seiners that are currently working out of Mag
> Bay. If the sardine stocks are healthy the seiners will have not seen a
> sardine decrease in the last 5-10 years. That must be true if you are
> going
> to double the fishing pressure and still maintain healthy stocks for the
> up
> chain fish to eat. I've found that the anecdotal evidence directly from
> the
> fishermen that are out their daily is almost always better then the
> science
> from scientists that are often under political pressures to show adequate
> fish stocks. Sea Watch did some interviews two years ago and from what we
> heard then from existing sardine seiners in Mag Bay and Ensenada, were
> that
> the sardines were already in major decline in Ensenada and were
> maintaining
> in Mag. Bay. If it would help Sea Watch would be glad to pay for someone
> to
> go to Mag Bay and interview sardine seiner Captains and crew currently
> working there. Last time we used Francisco Caballero from CET MAR here in
> Cabo whose brother is a Captain on a sardine seiner.
>
> Please let me know how we can help. Call me at 01-114-87882 in Cabo until
> the
> 9th and then at 12 27796 in La Paz.
>
>
> In a message dated 6/1/01 11:28:47 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
> [email protected] writes:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Subj: Every last fish
> Date: 6/1/01 11:28:47 AM Pacific Daylight Time
> From: [email protected] (Gonzalo Theurel C.)
> To: [email protected]
>
>
>
>
> Mike,
>
> I was surprised to see an article in the La Paz paper about a Korean
> Sardine boat which had been granted a permit to catch 200 tons of sardines
>
> per day and process (can) them on board. The boat will be fishing in the
> Pacific ocean along the southern coast of Baja and is several hundred feet
>
> long according to the article. A processing plant is also planned for
> construction in San Carlos. Neil Shroyer's office was the promoter of
> this
> enterprise. After reading it I called him to ask the details and he
> assured
> me that according with the C.R.I.P. (Centro Regional de Investigaciones
> Pesqueras) there are enough sardines to process 200 tons plus the other
> 200
> tons per day that are already being caught. He said not to worry, but its
>
> hard for me to stop, especially when you think that two hundred tons of
> sardines per day at 200 gms. ea.make an average daily catch of 1,000,000
> fish. Now they think they can take out another 1,000,000 fish per day. I
>
> feel that this is absolutely insane. The sardine being at the bottom of
> the food chain makes it pretty vital to the survival of many species above
>
> it as you know, and it has already been sacked pretty hard.
>
> What do you think?
>
> Chalo
>
> P.S. Gail wants to know how many sardines a tuna eats daily. Also, What
>
> does a marlin eat?
> P.S.S. Neil Shroyer told me that the cannery in San Carlos will employ 40
> persons. The major part of the boat crew is Korean.
>
>
So once again it appears that the Mexican Government has taken a reckless attitude in dealing with the most essential part of the food chain. I had hoped that the new administration would be more sensitive to the importance of this resource.
Anyway, our trip to Almejas was a success and we did very well on smaller snook to six pounds in several different esteros.
More Fishing Reports:
|
|
|
|
