Enhance social wellbeing in small scale fisheries

As part of the sustainable fisheries program, a Seafood Contest was organized in one of the fishing communities.

The main goal was to involve the fisher families to promote the consumption of fish and seafood as healthy foods, highlighting their value and recognizing the efforts of the fishermen.

Planning and Organization:

Meetings were held at the San Lucas ejido primary school with the participation of the principal and teachers, where the contest proposal was presented.

The contest guidelines were created and delivered to the participating school.

Support was provided by the Primary School Supervisor and the Ministry of Public Education (SEP).

Selection of the Jury:

The jury was composed of: Chef Rigoberto Peña (owner of "Restaurant Sicodélicos").

Lic. Elia Cardona and Lic. Andrés Barrera (Municipal Directors of Tourism).

Formal invitations were made and delivered to the judging panel.

Advertising and promotional materials for the event were designed.

Additional meetings were held with the teachers to finalize event details.

Certificates were created for the participants, the organizing school, and the judging panel.

The contest took place at the “Estado de Sonora” primary school, with 15 teams formed by students from the primary and secondary schools of the San Lucas ejido.

Prizes were awarded in kind: $2,500 MXN worth of stationery materials for the "Estado de Sonora" primary school.

Cash prize: $1,500 MXN for the winning team, who presented a dish of gratinated clams.

20 printed certificates were handed out to the participants and the judging panel.

Fishing and Environmental Monitoring Activities:

Fishing Monitoring: Monitoring of finfish species was conducted in three ports.

An accumulated record of 398 fishing days has been documented in digital logbooks through the PESCADATA app.

Underwater environmental monitoring activities were carried out to assess the marine ecosystem's conditions.

As part of the project funded by Ocean Conservancy, through the Global Ghost Gear Initiative, actions were taken for the recovery of ghost fishing gear and marine plastics.

Educational talks were given to children ages 6 to 12 in schools, addressing the issue of ghost fishing gear and its impacts on the ecosystem.

Recovery Actions: 188 kg of recovered fishing nets were acquired from the H. Mulegé community.

The nets were donated to the "Cuauhtémoc" primary school for reuse as soccer goals, promoting recycling.

A meeting was held with Dr. William F. Gilly and the local university administration to continue with the construction of the Marine Laboratory, which has been funded by The Ocean Foundation and managed and executed by Hagamos Más.

Links:

• Our project in Fishery Progress.
• Global Ghost Gear Initiative

The foundation is collaborating with “Ecologists Without Borders” on sustainable fishing initiatives, focusing on improving marine health and the well-being of local fishermen through best practices.

Weekly meetings with key stakeholders, including board members and project coordinators, are held to monitor project objectives.

In November, the foundation sent permit files to CONAPESCA for local fishermen, confirming receipt and transferring documents to INAPESCA for review.

These permits are for research purposes, helping assess fish availability and potentially leading to commercial fishing permits.

This month, a Human Rights Policy was introduced, signed by participating fishermen.

The community fisheries monitoring program concluded, and efforts are underway to secure funding for its continuation, which uses an app called Pescadata to track fish populations.

Additionally, with support from Ocean Conservancy via the Global Ghost Gear Initiative, an educational program has been implemented for children aged 6 to 12, focusing on the dangers of abandoned fishing nets.

This initiative has successfully recovered an average of 11 tons of such nets through community engagement.

Links:

• Our project in Fishery Progress.
• Global Ghost Gear Initiative