Government officials and members of the fishing industry within the National Committee for Fisheries and Aquaculture reviewed the current state of shrimp stocks in the Pacific Ocean coastline and agreed to set in the coming days the shrimp closure start date in estuaries, bays and coastal marine areas in the Pacific Ocean.
The commitment was undertaken at the offices of the National Commission of Aquaculture and Fisheries (Conapesca) in Mazatlan, Sinaloa, so that based on scientific studies by National Institute of Fisheries (Inapesca), the sustainability of the fishery can be guaranteed, said the director general of Fisheries and Aquaculture Management of Conapesca, Victor Manuel Arriaga Haro.
The aim is to reach agreements on the analysis of the historical behaviour of the shrimp fishery conducted by Inapesca and determine the convenient date to start the ban, considering the views of the industry, and to achieve a sustainable use of crustacean, the federal official said.
For his part, the deputy general director of Fisheries Research in the Pacific under Inapesca, Pedro Sierra, when making a diagnosis of shrimp catch season, he said that the Institute’s suggestion is that the ban must start promptly, taking into account the biological status of the species in the Pacific Ocean and the effects of environmental changes.
He explained that the analysis of capture indicators, reproductive aspects of species and environmental factors obtained in the different samples that have been conducted over the 2015-2016 fishing season and the samples taken in last December in the areas of catches of shrimp from the Upper Gulf of California, Sonora, Sinaloa, Nayarit to the Gulf of Tehuantepec, lead to recommend the start of the ban period.
He added that if the harvest season lasts until March, there is a risk of recruitment decline of shrimp stocks and an impact on next season’s production.
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