Page 322 - Mexico Diving From the Caribbean to Pacific Isles

The Midriff Islands Shark Disaster

Sharks mature and reproduce slowly. Their reproductive strategy more closely resembles that
of large mammals than of other fish. The fishery was losing its newborns each season, plus an
estimated 40% of all the sharks caught that decade were pregnant females. These facts are an
ominous sign: this fishery may never recover. The article below is by SeaWatch.org.

N othing illustrates how the Sea of Cortez has population there is at its largest. At the end of Mexico City imported 15 large pangas powered
had its bounty decimated better than the the season they sold their catch in the form of by big Yamaha engines, along with the filleters,
story of the shark camps of San Francisquito Bay. dried shark meat and fins. The next year, 1986, salters, cooks and other workers required to set
Over 200,000 sharks died in the San Francisquito the locals were joined by four more boats from up a large slaughterhouse. Another camp with
Bay fishery before it finally collapsed. An equal La Paz and added harpoons to their arsenal and 10 boats was set up 15 miles south of San Fran-
number of other fish, the by-catch that couldn’t the seven boat fleet sold about 8-10 tons of cisquito Bay at Rancho Barrill. The “harvest” dou-
be sold immediately, were simply thrown away. dried shark and manta ray meat at season’s end. bled to 24,000 sharks a season and, again, at least
The last vast shark population in the Sea of Cor- an equal number of non-target fish were thrown
tez was massacred in a single decade. Perhaps The next two years the fleet, now up to 10 pan- back dead. Over the next three years (1990-
the story will teach us a lesson that might save gas, caught 8,000 to 10,000 sharks each sea- 1993) the camps grew and grew and more than
another fishery from extinction. In 1985, San son, by drifting their gill nets all night, every night. 150,000 sharks were killed, 40% of which were
Francisquito Bay, a small bay located about 50 They also caught and threw away dead an equal pregnant females. But the boats had to range fur-
miles south of Bahía de Los Angeles, was shared number of other fish they didn ‘t want, like sail- ther and further away from the bay to maintain
by a single Mexican family and a small fly-in re- fish, skipjack and manta rays, only enough meat their catches. Harpooned dolphin and seal car-
sort. The killing of over 200,000 sharks began was saved to bait their nets. The mantas caught casses began washing up onto beaches 40 miles
slowly: just three small Mexican fishing boats, in the nets, if not already dead, were harpooned away; the fishermen had found that baiting their
or pangas, using gill nets and long lines, fished with long lengths of steel rebar and thrown over- nets with mammal meat attracted more sharks.
from June through September, when the shark board dead. In June of 1989 a company from