Sinaloa’s coastal shrimp, a fishery on the road to sustainability.

Small-scale shrimp fisher, member of the “Península de Lucenilla” cooperative, from the Port of Altata, Navolato, Sinaloa, Mexico.

By Carlos Pérez, Luis Salgado y Elizabeth Chaparro

Del Pacifico Seafoods is developing three projects to increase shrimp fisheries’ sustainability and social responsibility in coordination with fishing communities along Sinaloa’s central and northern coast. The main objective of these projects is to raise awareness among fishing groups about their fishing activities, which could lead to positive environmental impacts and increase the social benefits to their communities.

The Mexican Pacific shrimp fishery

Shrimp production from the Mexican Pacific represents approximately 79% of the total shrimp production in Mexico. Sinaloa is one of the two primary producers in the region and the country.

In the Pacific, the three most important species are blue shrimp (Litopenaeus stylirostris), brown shrimp (Farfantepenaeus californiensis), and white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei). With two fleets targeting them: the artisanal or coastal fleet, which operates using small boats using out-of-board motors and a variety of gears such as the cast nets or “atarraya” (mainly on the southern coast of Sinaloa), atarraya suripera or “suripera” (mostly in coastal lagoons along the south and central Sinaloa), the artisanal trawler or chango and the gillnet or “chinchorro” (along the central and northern coast of the State); and the industrial fleet, which fishes using medium-sized (>20m length ) vessels with inboard engines and only targets the species using bottom trawls nets as a fishing method.

Currently, the Mexican Official Standard (NOM-002-SAG/PESC-2013) is the primary official regulation for fishery. It contains the basic rules regarding access to the fishery, such as commercial fishing licenses, temporal and spatial closures, effort restrictions, and fishing gear specifications.

For generations, a large part of the population in Sinaloa’s fishing communities has relied on shrimp fishing. For almost half a year, the economic income of many families depends directly on what this activity generates. As a result, year after year, the cooperatives dedicated to artisanal shrimp fishing prepare their boats for the start of the catching season (September to March). Unfortunately, the investment is significant, and they generally have to request external financing. On several occasions, production is not good enough to cover these debts, leading to situations that have caused stagnation in the fishery’s evolution.

Scenarios like this create situations that directly harm the fishery. For example, problems such as the shrimp embargo that the United States (the main client of Mexican shrimp, who buys 80% of the product we export) decreed to Mexico in mid-2021 due to bad catching practices and the use of unsustainable fishing gear by the mid-water fleet. On the one hand, fishermen try to catch as many shrimps as possible, even those with inadequate sizes and with fishing gear that is not allowed. In other cases, some fishers go out fishing during the off-season, all in an attempt to cover operating costs, which causes the cooperatives to focus only on catching enough product to meet the needs of themselves and their families without worrying too much about federal regulations and the impact on the ecosystem that their practices may cause.

This set of events and scenarios requires implementing new operating methods within the fishery supply chain. Promoting added value to the product and generating an incentive that helps achieve the fishermen’s objectives and priorities, proposing actions that increase benefits for them and simultaneously positively impact the ecosystem.

Industrial shrimp trawler by catch

Project Description

Del Pacifico Seafoods has developed a work scheme that seeks to sustainably harvest blue shrimp from the Mexican Pacific and Gulf of California while obtaining the most significant benefit for the fishing cooperatives and their communities. Under this scheme, Del Pacifico Seafoods adopted the business model under the Fair-Trade USA capture standard to strengthen fishers, promote good fishing practices, and environmental and social responsibility. In addition, it minimizes the negative impact on the ecosystem caused by fishing activities and promotes its restoration. Based on an increase in the market value of shrimp through implementing an eco-labeling program for the product.

After almost seven years of implementing this strategy, 18 cooperatives in Sinaloa have already joined the project, and eight more are in the process of obtaining their certification by 2023. Season after season, more fishing groups have realized that working this way generates much more benefits both in the short and long term, so they voluntarily seek to join this project. All of this means that little by little, the old fishing practices and lack of awareness of the ecosystem are disappearing, paving the way for the sustainable use of resources.

Vessels of the Sinaloa artisanal fleet. The season has opened, and the catch of blue shrimp with “atarraya suripera” within the bay of the Ensenada de Pabellones/Puerto de Altata lagoon system has been lifted.

One of the major problems in any fishery, especially coastal shrimp fishery, is the capture of non-target species. These species that are taken “accidentally” along with shrimp are generally not recorded, and there is no knowledge of the volume, type, size, conservation status, and place of capture of these organisms. This situation generates uncertainty regarding the true impact of coastal shrimp fishing on the ecosystem. This scenario leads to a lack of information and evidence to argue the sustainability of inshore shrimp fishing, especially in adverse situations such as the implementation of indefinite closures or commercial embargoes, as mentioned in previous paragraphs. The solution to this problem has been integrated as a core part of the Del Pacifico Seafoods project, implementing an onboard observer program on the vessels of the fishing groups that work with us. This strategy consists of gathering the necessary information regarding the accompanying fauna on each fishing trip. In this way, we know the most vulnerable species by fishing gear and the quantity, frequency, size, weight, age, and condition of the organisms caught. At the same time, awareness is generated among fishermen so that they integrate these practices into their routine, adopt the filling of logbooks as a fundamental part of their day, use fishing gear that minimizes the impact on the ecosystem, make the most of incidental species and try to release alive those that have no commercial value.

Currently, we have the information generated by the onboard observer team for two fishing seasons (2021-2022 and 2022-2023), which is essential if, in the future, we wish to certify the shrimp fishery under the standards of the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), the most widely recognized certification in the world.

Release of incidental species (cabrilla Diplectrum rostrum) bycatch of the coastal shrimpwith Atarraya Suripera in La Reforma Bay, Angostura, Sinaloa.

Bycatch on a shrimp fishing trip with a suripera line. The vessel belongs to the cooperative Ribereña Dautillos, Navolato, Sinaloa.

Project achievements

Since the implementation of the project in 2015 and thanks to the extra value given to certified shrimp, agreements and policies have now been established with the producers that are part of this program (so far, 26 fishing cooperatives in the states of Sinaloa and Sonora and more than 4,000 fishermen). They are committed to working according to the norms, periods, and rules officially established in Mexico, which directly benefit the health of blue shrimp populations. Training fishermen on good catch practices and environmental responsibility, to have in place surveillance monitoring, bay cleaning activities, and larval repopulation practices are some of the activities that have been implemented year after year to generate a positive impact on the ecosystem. In addition, other projects with significant social impact have been implemented, such as hiring school transportation for fishermen’s children, supporting schools in the communities, remodeling the cooperatives’ facilities, refurbishing boats, and purchasing personal protection equipment. More than 1,000 direct jobs have been generated, and more than 2,000 families have benefited.

Environmental responsibility and the benefits of working under this scheme are some of the training areas for commercial shrimp fishers.

Delivery of personal protection equipment to fishermen of Sinaloa’s fishing cooperatives.

Another of the main results obtained from the implementation of this project was the first Sustainability Forum, which was held the second week of August 2022 in the city of Merida, Yucatan. The main objective of this event was to present the action strategy of Del Pacifico Seafoods for the next five years, communicate the achievements obtained so far and bring together all the actors of the coastal shrimp supply chain; all this to promote interaction and feedback between all parties, producers, government sector, NGO’s, Research Centers, civil society and commercial sector.

Del Pacifico Seafoods’ first Sustainability Forum

Representatives of fishery production cooperatives and Del Pacifico Seafoods personnel gathered at the first Sustainability Forum.

Future Work

Currently, the project is still progressing, with more fishing cooperatives adopting this work method. The plan is to continue gathering as much information as possible from the fishery and raising awareness among all supply chain members so that, in the future, it can be certified under the MSC standard.

Fishers of the “Puerto de Altata” cooperative from Navolato, Sinaloa.