More than 12,000 fishermen will start the tuna capture in the Mexican territorial sea of ??the Pacific Ocean and foreign jurisdictional waters that are in the area of ??regulation of the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC), starting on January 20, when it concludes the ban period.
The species that are caught in this area are yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares), bigeye tuna (Thunnus obesus), bluefin (Thunnus orientalis) and skipjack (Katsuwonus pelamis).
The tuna fishery is very important for Mexico because of its contribution to the food sector and the regional economy, since this activity generates around 70,000 jobs, direct and indirect, as well as more than 100,000 tonnes of products with high nutritional value.
Due to its volume and value, the tuna fishery is positioned in the second place of the fishing production in Mexico, the National Commission of Aquaculture and Fisheries (CONAPESCA) highlights. It is also one of the most sustainable, a feature that has been recognized by FAO when it awarded the Margarita Lizárraga Medal to Sustainable Fishing, and recently the certification to the national fleet of this fishery, by the Marine Stewardship Council ( MSC).
According to preliminary figures from the IATTC, from January 1 to December 3, 2017, the Mexican tuna fleet caught 109,533 tonnes of tuna in the waters of the eastern Pacific Ocean, representing 18.5 percent of the total catches in that area.
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