Case Study 2: The Baja California, Mexico, Lobster Fishery - SEAFOOD Ecolabelling: Principles and Practice - page 259

Chapter 12
Case Study 2: The Baja California,
Mexico, Lobster Fishery

Bruce Phillips, Luis Bourill on and Mario Ramade

12.1 Introduction

The spiny lobster ( Panulirus interruptus ) fishery in Baja California, Mexico, was
successful in obtaining Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) endorsement as a sus-
tainable and well-managed fishery in 2005. The P. interruptus spiny lobster fishery
in Baja California dates from the early 1900s (Ayala et al. 1988, Vega & Lluch-Cota
1992, Vega et al . 1996). Also known as red lobster or California lobster, P . interrup-
tus is fished in small quantities both commercially and recreationally in California
in the US, but in Mexico this species is only fished by commercial fishermen in
the area from the US border to Margarita Island, near the tip of the Baja Califor-
nia Peninsula. However, the main portion of the stock is between Cedros Island
and Punta Abreojos along the Pacific coast of Mexico between 28.6 ◦ N 115.5 ◦ W
to 26.6 ◦ N 113.2 ◦ W. Most of this marine area is part of the Vizcaıno Biosphere
Reserve (except Cedros Island) and is contained withina5kmband along the
shore. The fishing grounds are delimited in exclusive fishing zones that are shown
in Figure 12.1.
In Baja California, 26 Mexico fishing cooperatives exploit P . interruptus .How-
ever, 9 of these cooperatives operating in the central region of the Peninsula, from
Punta Abreojos to Isla Cedros, catch around 80% of the total catch of this species.
These cooperatives are part of the Federaci on Regional de Sociedades Cooperativas
de Baja California (FEDECOOP), who was the client for the MSC assessment on
behalf of the cooperatives.
About 500 fishers are members of the 9 fishing cooperatives distributed in 10
villages along the coast of the fishing area, and they fish using fishing skiffs up
to 7 m in length powered with outboard motors. Lobsters are caught by setting
baited wire traps that are fitted with escape gaps to allow undersized lobsters to
escape. Details of the number of members, boats and traps at the time of the MSC
assessment are given in Table 12.1.