Every Fish Counts

Due to the extension of its coastline and the upwelling processes that exist in Baja, California, the community of El Rosario is a central point of reference for artisanal fishing. “The work of a fisherman is very noble and for this reason we must take care of what we catch so that it lasts longer,” says Héctor Martínez, Assistant Manager of the Ensenada Fishing Production Cooperative. With more than 30 years as a cooperative society, the S.C.P.P. Ensenada has provided the necessary tools to its staff, participated in community projects, established fishing refuge zones, and implemented strategies to achieve fishing sustainability. All this has been possible thanks to its core values, such as community collaboration. Ensanada has worked together with more than 60 partners who have managed to leave a positive mark on the marine ecosystem. The participation of scientists, academics, and non-profit organizations has helped determine the tasks and approaches needed to carry out projects that encompass traditional and scientific knowledge and above all, resilience.

Ensenada has been implementing solutions focused on the sustainability of fisheries and food security. One of the latest projects was born out of the need to end the embarrassing processes of using paper, napkins, cardboard, and in-person delivery every 15 days. “Before I was the only one who recorded the information of the catches, I spent many hours at the end of the month entering the information in Excel. But when they told us about PescaData, it caught my attention, because everyone uses a cell phone,’’ says Hector Martinez. “Even at this time, we do not go out without a phone, and the application works without the internet. So, everyone can register their information automatically.”

The process for the incorporation of the PescaData application was not easy. At first, there was some resistance to the application from older fishers who initially refused because they were afraid of breaking the application. However, PescaData, being a collaborative technological tool, facilitated the communication and coordination that this group needed to develop its fishing activities in a simpler and more effective way.

Héctor Martínez studied Business Administration, and he began working in the Ensenada cooperative, a job that has taught him many great lessons, nine years ago. Despite not having previous experience in the fishing sector, his knowledge and the teachings of his colleagues enabled him to identify the importance of the fishing sector not only for the community of El Rosario, but also for Mexico. Previously, the Ensenada cooperative worked manually—that is, with pen, pencil, and paper, filling out logbooks and arrivals, among other administrative processes. However, a few years ago, the group began to incorporate technology for the better.

The main intention of using the PescaData application in S.C.P.P. Ensenada was to have a better digital administration, order, and logistics in the cloud. Previously, Hector had to ask each fisher about his day spent fishing, gathering information by word of mouth about what he caught, how much, and what new supplies he needed. Today, Hector manages to know all that information and more from El Tablero de PescaData. This tool allows access to records of fishing activities from each organization so that managers like Hector can view and analyze the data by and across fishing seasons. “From El Tablero, we have identified data that help us to know why production is high or low. You no longer have to go around asking everyone. With the information entered there, you get it directly here in El Tablero. Before you had to ask them physically. Now, they themselves input the information in PescaData, and I can check it on my phone.”

The ability of Hector Martinez and the more than 60 fishers to work as a team is vital to successfully manage the needs and activities carried out by the fishers while simultaneously protecting the oceans. Fishing is not about who gets more; rather, it is about who protects more and manages to make each fish count, achieving a balance between nature and human needs and activities. This is how sustainable fishing practices are implemented through the control of fishing records.

A fishing trip requires great effort. Planning begins days or even months ahead of time. It requires the mobilization of 60 members, distributed across 25 square kilometers, the renewal of fishing permits and the diagnosis of each boat to make sure they are ready. Around 80 people from S.C.P.P. Ensenada participated in this process to collect enough lobster, abalone, sea urchin, crab, sea cucumber, and 10 types of flake to be sold nationally and in export markets.

The day before, either myself or a partner prepares the bait that stays in the pickup at night. The next day, in the morning, we pour the gasoline for the engine, the gasoline for the coral reef. We pour the bait, we get our coolers ready, and we wait until they tell us to go out. We go out as the sun rises; it is not an exact time, between 5:00 and 6:00 in the morning, because we go out to fish.” Oscar Martinez is a 29-year-old man, father of a family and fisherman of the S.C.P.P. Ensenada. He has been working with Ensenada for the past seven years. Previously, he worked in the maquila of this same cooperative, learning his trade from his father and brother. Often, this kind of work is transmitted from generation to generation. “The first time I went fishing was seven years ago. At that time, I worked fish in nets and crab in traps. I worked the curvina and from 300 or 400 meters before reaching the net, you see that it floats. This means that there is something there. You arrive, and sometimes they are curvinas or jacks. When you see something caught in the nets, you feel the satisfaction. It is the best thing you can see because you are happy that you are catching something.”

According to the 2020 FAO report, in Mexico, there are between 250 and 300 thousand direct jobs derived from artisanal fishing, contributing to 54% of fish production and about 800 thousand tons of marine product. Carlos is one of the 37 young men in charge of registering the catches of all his boat equipment from the PescaData application. At the beginning, it was a little difficult for him, but he managed to adopt the application early. (People who normally ask for help and advice from others are called early adopters. They are more cautious in the use of technology, and for this reason they use the technology in a measured and successful way.)

It is important to note that both Oscar and the other 37 fishers responsible for filling out the logs were trained by Hector Martinez and PescaData staff to use the application. “It is a sheet of paper that covers 15 days. I have to write where you go, at what depth, how much I caught, how the weather was.” Every third day, he recorded the information in the PescaData application. Each species is filled in with both its scientific name and its colloquial name, and if not, there is also a picture.” Here there is no margin for error, the data is more accurate,” Carlos says. To help achieve an increase in work performance and prevent leaving anyone behind, the adoption of PescaData by the young people of the S.C.P.P. Ensenada has facilitated use of the application. Perceived ease of use was identified. Above all, the infrastructure of the application was vital to meet the fishers’ needs.

The traditional and technological knowledge of fishing has always gone hand in hand. Now, with GPS, it is much easier to have a weather forecast and to know if it is good to go fishing 4 or 5 days in advance. Oscar argues for the importance of technology, but also of traditional practices that are still latent. These “mañas,” as he describes them, are accompanied by empirical knowledge that has been passed down from generation to generation. “One can be guided with the pure hills. This was taught to me by the people who are older, who did not have the technology that we have now. For example, there is a hill that has a white stripe and we all know it as “El Rayado.” From “Rayado,” down you go locating, the people and we ourselves name them. For example, when the north hits here, it dries your lips a lot, because that kind of air is dry. So when it is hitting you, your dry lips tell you the direction of north. And when the seagulls are flying at a certain height, you know there is going to be wind.” In other words, the fishers’ experiences and observations of the environment have helped them to forecast the weather in order to go out fishing responsibly.

There are different social, political, economic, and especially technological changes that have led to the promotion of scientific development for coastal communities. Over the years, we have observed great technological transformations and their impact on fishing. From the S.C.P.P. Ensenada, the use of technology and digitalization has always been for the better, as mentioned by Miguel Bracamontes, fisherman, diver, and current representative of aquaculture in the S.C.P.P. Ensenada. “In the 1980s, the first device we used for fishing was a compass. Then, we started to use digital watches to mark the time we were navigating, and with the compass we calculated the courses or the reference points we were going to touch. Then in 1992–1993, the two-meter communication radios arrived, and we felt we were able to be more efficient, and safe when out at sea. By the year 2000, digital radios with repeaters arrived, and everyone had a portable handheld radio—much safer than the two-meter radios.

Then GPS arrived and revolutionized fishing for better and for worse.” It all depends on how you use it, Miguel said. “It is a very useful tool, but it has been developed to determine marine points. After that, echo sounders came out, and fishers started to use echo sounders when fishing for flake. Other technologies began to arrive; the telephone arrived, and it already had calls, coordinates, and a camera. They are very safe things, so nowadays almost everybody communicates with their cell phones. Now we even have PescaData with COBI, and the fishermen can do the logbook with their phones”.

The information and communication technology revolution has radically transformed the vision of fishing and its relationship with the environment. From this idea of an integral and technological world, it is important to emphasize, as Miguel Bracamontes mentions, the use and benefit of technology. It is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it helps us to continue to achieve the sustainability of small-scale fisheries. But on the other hand, the inappropriate use of technology can be detrimental to fisheries.

According to a report on knowledge transfer, young people dedicated to fishing are the users who have the closest approach to technology. The usability of, interaction with, and relationship with new applications has become a substantial factor affecting the ability to to acquire knowledge, digitized interaction, and constructivist strategies for collaboration.

Miguel Bracamontes was one of the first users to test the PescaData application. Thanks to his comments, it was possible to further refine the application, identify errors, and improve the user experience. Miguel addresses the interaction of fishers with the application, and he identifies that as young fishermen gain confidence in the handling of the application, the knowledge and use of the application is progressive and their interaction improves. Ensenada determined the strategy of setting up groups of young people responsible for using the application and recording the logs of each vessel to which they belong. This decision was made based on how the young fishermen were the users with greater digital skills. “We want to change the methodology and accustom the new generations to learning how to use technology, which is a very important tool since it streamlines everything.”

In the Ensenada Cooperative, every fish counts. It is a collective effort made among colleagues, who have jointly integrated all the needs and services of fishing in the fishing value network. For the Ensenada Cooperative, it is important to inspire other people by sharing how they see life in the sea, showing people how to be friendly with the sea, to take care of it and to carry out sustainability strategies for fishing.

“Look at Atenas. From here my husband and I can see when the pangas come. That’s when we grab our gear and head to the port to start monitoring the fishing,” says Jackqueline Fernandez from the balcony of her home in Santa Rosalia, Baja California Sur. Jacqueline is 27 years old and is a community monitor, mother, wife, and proud descendant of a fishing family.

From a very young age, she realized the importance of fishing for her family from her parents and grandparents, who depended on fishing for their livelihoods. Now, as the mother of two young children and wife of a fisher, she has the important mission of helping the people who are dedicated to fishing in Santa Rosalía understand how to be responsible stewards of the environment. “One of my jobs is to tell people about the correct size of fish and that they should not catch such small fish, which damages production,” says Jacqueline.

Jacqueline’s work is focused on the recovery of oceans’ health. Using the PescaData application has helped her to know in the first instance the type of species that are extracted in Santa Rosalía. She has learned the minimum and maximum size of fish for harvest, and she has been able to identify the best seasons in which to fish. She also keeps track of expenses, consumption, and inputs of each fisherman in Santa Rosalía. The first day she used the application, she managed to enter 30 logs in two days. Now, after 10 months of using the application, Jacqueline takes only five minutes to register a log. “In the application, it is easier to register. Plus, you have a backup. On paper, it can get wet, and you lose all the information. With the application, you can use any cell phone to register the information, and it is no longer lost because the information is automatically saved,” emphasizes Jacqueline, pointing out the ease of using PescaData on her cell phone.

Since 2021, Jacqueline’s life and the life of her family has transformed. Together with her husband, Julio César, they have managed to inspire more fishers to find new ways to improve, care for, and raise awareness about the health of the oceans. Together, they work as a team and promote gender equality at sea. While Jacqueline keeps the logbooks, Julio works to support the fishers of Santa Rosalía, from pre-boarding (cleaning the panga, preparing ice, and repairing fishing gear), to boarding (loading materials and equipment into the pangas), to production (going out fishing and enjoying the sea).

For Julio, fishing is his upbringing. Fishing is in his blood, not only because he comes from a family of fishermen, but also because it is what he enjoys doing the most. “Fishing was what raised me since before I can remember. Since I was 6 years old, I had to learn how to fish, although I had no studies I learned a lot about fishing. The first fish I caught was a jack mackerel of 22 kilograms. I caught it with a mackerel bait when there was a permit for mackerel at 60 fathoms. From a young age, I had to learn to catch big animals to get ahead with my family.” Like his wife Jacqueline, it is fundamental for Julio to take care of the environment and to take care of fishing. Carrying out activities such as weighing and size marking help to show his fellow fishers that they must ensure better management of their resources. “We have to stop being predators, because when we are predators, we don’t let the fish grow. We will finish the supply, and the only thing we will find will be stones.” Jacqueline and Julio fulfill an important mission in their community, as they help all people dedicated to fishing acquire a basic understanding of environmental care and the health of the oceans, promoting respect for minimum sizes to ensure the balance of the seas, and contributing to the sustainable production of fishery resources.

20 kilometers from Santa Rosalía is a small fishing community called San Bruno, where fishing work is vital to the daily life of the Romero family. They have been dedicated to fishing for more than three decades, and they run a cooperative called Hermanos Romero. Everything starts the day before—Abraham’s wife makes the lunch that her husband will take to work very early in the morning, the Romero brothers check the necessary tools for the next day, and they especially check the weather. In case of wind, they can not go out.

At 4:00 a.m., the Romero brothers get ready to start fishing. They prepare their equipment and check the nets, motors, and tools necessary to start the day. They are accompanied by other family members to take the panga in a truck and unload it at the dock. Abraham Romero is the youngest of the Romero brothers. His uncle and brother were the ones who taught him to fish when he was 10 years old. Despite not having finished his studies, he is an example for the entire community of San Bruno. He inspires not only his children, but the community for having perseverance and courage at sea. “What I like most is diving. I feel more opportunity to walk under the water than above. As soon as I dive, I start to feel the adrenaline. I look at the beauty that is under the sea and I feel even happier when I capture something.” Abraham’s work is one of the trades that requires the greatest skill. Normally, 20-liter oxygen tanks are used to perform these functions. However, he fishes without using a tank and by relying on hoses to hold his breath at a depth of 5 strokes.

The Romero brothers’ cooperative is made up not only of men, but also of women, whose role is indispensable in the entire fishing community. When the fishers return from fishing between 2:00 and 3:00 in the afternoon, they disembark and the fishing monitoring begins. Abraham’s niece, Denia Romero, is in charge. She is a 19-year-old woman who collaborates with her uncles to measure and weigh each species brought in from the day’s fishing. Before using the PescaData application, Denia used a notebook to write down the daily production record. Denia has been using the application for a year now and points out that “the process has been easier and more practical. My uncles are seeing everything they spend and how much product they take each season. They are controlling everything because they see the control from the logbook.”

Training as a fishing monitor has allowed Denia to learn more about caring for the sea, identifying the minimum and maximum weight and size of fish to improve production and prevent them from being overfished. Likewise, she has been able to help her uncles with her knowledge in PescaData to learn about the species, administration, and control of expenses, production logistics, and fishing season forecasts. “Every fish counts” is a motto that is consolidated in these communities with the application of these sustainable practices, made possible by the PescaData app.

Fundación Hagamos Más is a non-profit civil association with more than 14 years of experience working in sustainable fisheries development through the support of productive options and the promotion of social welfare. The organization is located in Santa Rosalía, Baja California Sur. Together with ECOWB

(a non-governmental organization and specialists in fishing sustainability), they are currently working on a project called “Sustainable Fisheries in the Santa Rosalía-Mulegé corridor. “This plan is responsible for creating awareness to recover the health of the oceans and scaling small-scale fishing to a more competitive level. To achieve this, the foundation has made significant efforts for and in the community. Its first steps were to identify the main problems in the sector and direct the fishing activity towards increasing their sustainability practices. They also worked to recognize the most important commercial products of the corridor—namely jack mackerel, snappers, and cabrillos.

Following this analysis, they set up a fishery improvement project (FIP). “It is a multi-stakeholder effort to address the environmental challenges of a fishery. These projects use the power of the private sector to incentivize positive changes toward sustainability of fisheries and try to make these changes last through policy changes” (Guidelines for the Support of Fishery Improvement Projects, 2022).

These programs and projects are headed by Alma Colorado Betanzos, Director of Fundación Hagamos Más, who together with ECOWB set out to obtain a FIP in favor of the coastal communities of Santa Rosalía, San Bruno, San Lucas, and Heroica de Múgele. “When the pre-evaluation is done, everything comes out in red and you say, ‘It’s wrong.’ But it is not wrong. Simply and simply that fishing in the community has always been controlled by the government and each administration is losing information. So the red did not mean that the fishermen were doing it wrong; rather, it meant that no one was collecting the information,” Alma said.

Alma and her team decided to focus on teaching, researching, and obtaining the FIP by giving the necessary tools to more than 400 fishers in order to strengthen employment and raise their awareness to work as a team on certification. The passion for improving the welfare of the fishing sector led Alma to new fields that were unknown to her. She discovered new ways of working inside and outside the extraction of the fish product. For this reason, and as a first approach, they made the strategy of contacting wives and women within the fishery value network to invite them to be part of the fishery monitoring group. This is how both Jackie and Denia became part of this strategy.

One of the fundamental pillars for this project has been the use of the PescaData application. “We were looking to know how the fishers could know if their day was productive, if that journey of so many hours was really worth their effort. When we found PescaData, we found everything,” said Alma. Using the PescaData application with the support of a fishery monitoring group has helped to obtain a FIP and generate information for better planning, evaluation, and control of operations within the business lines based on expenses and sales.

The coastal communities of the Santa Rosalía-Mulege corridor have demonstrated throughout this first year that no tide, storm, or pandemic can stop them. With the support of the Hagamos Más Foundation, government institutions, and academia, they have managed to understand the importance of working collaboratively to inspire more fishing families. “The fishing sector goes through many things. Sometimes, you see in their eyes hopelessness, because they believe that nothing is possible and that what they do is going to end, or they will fish all their lives and they do not know what their future is. So the fact that they trust us, that they come and sit here in front of us and tell us that they agree with the project, that they support us by participating, that they support us by answering surveys, that they take their time when they arrive tired from a day’s work and that they allow us to have someone taking a logbook and asking them to fill out a catch, that is worth the effort for us,” Alma says.

Day by day, coastal communities face problems such as climate change, deficits in fishing operations, lack of knowledge about the population dynamics of species, and high rates of habitat destruction, to mention several. However, through environmental awareness, social responsibility, the daily efforts of Fundación Hagamos Más, and the people dedicated to fishing within the entire fishing value network, small but valuable changes have been made.

The community of Progreso in Yucatan is located 3,267 kilometers from Santa Rosalia, an example community for fishing and exports of Octopus Maya, better known as the Mayan octopus. “This state contributes more than 65% of the national production of Mayan octopus, consolidating it as a strong exponent in its production and manufacture, exporting 70% mainly to Europe and Japan” (COBI, 2021).

Founded in the 1980s by Don Jesus Manuel Gutierrez Aguilar, Promarmex Packing House began by selling fishmeal and then fresh fish. It is currently one of the most internationally recognized companies in the export of octopus. The process has not been easy, especially with the arrival of the pandemic in early 2020, when they had to demonstrate their resilience and become better organized in order to continue working. However, with the support of their families and workers, they have managed to provide a quality service. “Everyone who works in this company, from the cleaner to the manager— all of them are the pillars of Promarmex,” says Don Jesus Manuel.

They use a traditional fishing method called jimba, in which a caught octopus is placed in a tubular bag with ice. Each bag contains 15 kilograms of fresh octopus.

Once the transport arrives with the product in ice and is bagged, it enters directly into a stainless steel drainer and immediately goes through the product quality review process. It is classified according to size, color, odor, texture, and temperature. In fact, it is a very detailed review that involves identifying the absence of fuel odor or the presence of any foreign material. The next step is to weigh the product and take it to the ice storage area, where about 400 kg of product is stored in each ice cooler. The next phase is called the second inspection. More than 20 women carefully recheck each part of the octopus and verify that the evisceration has been carried out correctly. It is here where the sense of smell and sight is indispensable to be able to touch and observe that the product complies with the established terms. This team of women takes approximately 30 minutes to examine one ton of product. Undoubtedly, the experience and hands of these women play a very important role in quality control.

Once the octopus is selected, the next step is to be classified by commercial sizes and weighed by the hands of women dedicated to this trade. María Aurora is responsible for this process. She started working at Promarmex when she was 18 years old. “Here, the work is of quality. I like everything. I feel comfortable working here, because all the equipment we need is provided to us,” says María.

Thanks to this work, María Aurora has managed to get ahead, supporting her family and obtaining training that has allowed her to become even more professional at her job. She also likes to teach new hires. “I like to teach the ladies who come in and don’t know how to do it, so that they can continue learning. Just as I was taught when I came in, I like them to learn.”

The product is weighed in plastic trays, which have a polyethylene mesh to better protect its contents. After weighing, the octopus trays are placed on shelves, and the freezing process begins. Due to the strength and weight of the materials involved, this step is carried out mainly by men. The racks are kept in freezers so that the temperature of the product drops from -20°C to -35°C for 24 hours. This is followed by the packaging and labeling process, which involves about 16 men, 4 men per rack, who effectively remove the frozen product from the tray and place it in boxes, which contain two trays and are then taped closed. The boxes are placed on pallets to be packed and marked with the production lot, and then the pallet is placed in the cannery, a storage room where the temperature is maintained at less than -18°C. The product has a shelf life of up to 24 months, during which a random monthly monitoring is carried out to determine the internal temperature and sensory characteristics of the product. Finally, in the shipping process, the packing and freezing supervisor will check that the Thermo King (refrigerated truck) has been previously cooled to -18°C before shipment and that the box is clean and free of foreign odors.

Within the freezing, packing, and production process, Gabriel Covarrubias is responsible for verifying that this production chain is carried out in the most optimal and safe manner. “We all depend on each other’s work. If there is a problem in production, it will obviously be reflected in our work. Here we all have to be aware of our work and also of the work of the next person, so as not to leave a problem,” says Gabriel Covarrubias.

Gabriel Covarrubias has been working at Promarmex for 26 years. He has had the opportunity to move up through the ranks. He points out that for Promarmex, the care of product quality, product conservation, and constant training of personnel have been critical to maintaining the plant. “Basically, it is important that we are aware of our work. The products we generate go to the end consumer. We have to ensure that our products have an adequate quality for the consumer because at the end of the day, we are also consumers. “When the shipment is made, the warehouseman, quality control specialist, sales operator, and exporter must have a list of the product to be shipped and be coordinated to do it in the fastest, most orderly and careful way.

Every day, to ensure that these processes comply with the established requirements, Denisse Zapata, who has been working at Promarmex for 15 years, carries out a series of steps that help verify that the product is of a high quality standard. “I received training to carry out audits. I like it a lot. I have opportunities to improve myself. I have been sent to another country for training and they give me opportunities for training courses. They always place me at the forefront of all the good things that are coming,” Denisse says with great enthusiasm.

Being at the forefront, as Denisse points out, implies having the necessary tools and machinery as well as the implementation of digitalization in the fishing sector. To this end, they decided to join an octopus FIP in the hope of demonstrating their commitment to sustainability through concrete actions such as the health of the target species, ecosystem health, and effective product management. The digitalization of quality control processes has allowed Promarmex, through PescaData, to have more precise control over the products, saving time and contributing to traceability.

For the fisheries monitoring stage, Promarmex has the support of Viviana Pech, who is in charge of uploading the fishing logs. “By using the PescaData application, we see more organization, and there is greater control of inputs such as bait, ice, diesel and especially any extra expenses they may have,” says Viviana.

Thanks to the use of the PescaData application, the company Promarmex has been able to record data spanning from the type of vessel and date of arrival and departure, to the biometric data for fish, sex, bait registration, and control of inputs. In addition to that, the use of El Tablero has allowed them to review all of the data that they collect each month. “We have a compilation of all our data where everything is already stored. You just download a file and it is really easy to use and to access. It is really very useful because if sometimes we forget to write down the data, we can download a report and have it immediately,” adds Viviana. Viviana indicates that the whole Promarmex team is very willing to participate in the octopus FIP, and this has helped them to carry out a more detailed monitoring.

Innovation requires reflection on the part of the fishing sector and the identification of the problems that need to be addressed. Currently, we have neededed the accelerated development of competencies that allow us to interact with electronic and digital devices. This requirement shows the importance of meeting the digital needs of the fishing sector. Using this technology means we can more easily achieve sustainability of fisheries. Today more than ever, we know the importance of the use of digital tools that have allowed us to access knowledge, facilitate our daily work, and connect with other people to share experiences.

In these stories, we recognize the people who work to preserve and enhance sustainable communities. These stories are examples of the enormous work being done in the fishing sector. We hope that this commitment and effort inspires us to take action to ensure that every person, every catch, every process that is carried out counts toward the conservation of resources and the promotion of a more responsible fishing sector—because with PescaData, every fish counts.