Summary

Our project aims to help recover the shark populations and the entire ecosystem of El Bajo de Espíritu Santo, by involving local artisanal fishers in shark ecotourism, research, and surveillance near and around this formerly famous seamount.

Challenge

El Bajo de Espíritu Santo is an underwater mountain ridge jutting out to shallow waters (18 m) from more than 1000 meters in depth.  El Bajo seamount was a major hotspot of marine life and biodiversity in the Gulf of California. An area so amazingly full of sharks, giant mantas, yellowfin tuna and other pelagic fishes that it became famous worldwide. It was considered one of the best places in the world to dive with schools of hundreds of hammerhead sharks in the late 1980s. But since then, the abundance of hammerheads and many other species of sharks have plummeted due to intense overfishing. The hammerhead shark population of El Bajo collapsed by the early 2000s, and the species was considered ecologically extinct in this seamount. Nevertheless, after the cascade collapse among shark populations, it was again possible to see some juvenile hammerhead sharks at El Bajo for the first time in 20 years. Thus, the recovery of this incredible ecosystem is still possible, but to help the seamount to fully recuperate we need to take action to protect and conserve the shark populations and the entire pelagic ecosystem of El Bajo and nearby seamounts.

Solution

This project will be directly implemented with the fishing community of La Partida of Isla Espíritu Santo. This community uses traditional hook and line, a highly sustainable and selective fishing method to catch grouper and snapper in deep waters off El Bajo. However, the La Partida fishers are truly concerned by the destruction of El Bajo as it is one of their main fishing grounds. They used to fish for sharks until a few years ago, which represented around 40% of their income, but by witnessing the collapse of shark populations and getting involved in research and conservation, they now want to have a more active role in the recovery of hammerheads and sharks of El Bajo.

Long-Term Impact

This project will help to recover the shark populations and restore the pelagic ecosystem of El Bajo seamount. We hope it will serve as a model to recover shark populations and restore other seamounts and islands in the Gulf of California.

Overarching goal of the project:

We aim to help recover the shark populations of El Bajo seamount from its collapse and near ecological extinction. To accomplish this main goal, we need to carry out shark research and surveillance of El Bajo involving local artisanal fishers. However, these actions need funding.

-Shark research:

The La Partida fishers are the most qualified to catch sharks to perform studies on them, such as telemetry (e.g. acoustic and satellite tracking), genetics (e.g. blood and skin sampling) and others. These studies are necessary to implement effective conservation strategies.

-Surveillance:

The La Partida fishers spend the majority of their time out at sea, hence they are the most experienced crew to carry out the surveillance of El Bajo. Getting them involved in marine conservation will be a tremendous asset to the project by helping reduce illegal fishing in El Bajo, which is now the main cause of degradation of this incredible pelagic ecosystem.

Recovery of economic loss:

La Partida fishers stopped fishing sharks four years ago and stored away their shark fishing equipment. They have done this despite a loss of 40% of their income, that is, shark fishing represented nearly half of their gross revenue. They currently fish for other species, particularly grouper, snapper, and other deep-water bony fishes. However, the economic loss of the fishers needs to be regained by carrying out other economic activities like shark research and ecotourism. Pelagios Kakunjá is already helping these fishers by hiring them seasonally for research field trips, but this is clearly not enough.

Switching from shark fishing to ecotourism:

The most effective way to ensure a regular and sustainable income is via shark ecotourism. The core of our project is to help the fishers buy a registered panga and start an ecotourism activity during the months with most sightings of hammerhead and silky sharks in the area. This can be a complementary economic activity that could offset their 40% loss in income.

Who is involved:

We are Pelagios Kakunjá, a non-profit organization aiming to study and protect sharks and mantas in Mexico, many of which are globally endangered, mainly due to overfishing. We work directly with local artisanal fishers to study different species of sharks. This partnership has been critical for our research during the last 15 years in the Mexican Pacific.

How the money will be used:

Step 1: Boat ($10,000 USD)

Reaching this step will allow us to buy a dedicated and registered boat equipped for shark ecotourism activity. Fishers will be trained to be able to start the activity this summer (2022).

Step 2: Boat ($10,000 USD) + Surveillance ($5,000 USD)

Reaching this step will allow us to buy the boat and to give a “starter” economic support to the fishers to monitor El Bajo for illegal fishers during this summer.

Help shark conservation:

Choose your own amount: Thank you!

Any donation will help to carry out this project.

$50 USD: Thank you!

$500 USD: Access to our documentary and to a dedicated online conference!

$1,000 USD: Day Trip to El Bajo!*

Organization information

Pelagios Kakunjá is a non-profit organization created in 2010 by the Mexican scientists Mauricio Hoyos and James Ketchum. Our main goal is to study and protect sharks and mantas in Mexico, many of which are globally endangered, mainly due to overfishing. We aim to provide technical information for the regional management and implementation of conservation strategies for these species in Mexico. We seek to understand the ecology and behavior of marine predators, to generate baseline information for the management and conservation of sharks and other pelagic fauna in the Gulf of California and the Mexican Pacific.

In 2017, Pelagios Kakunjá together with governing bodies, helped to extend the National Park of the Archipelago of Revillagigedo, creating the largest Marine Protected Area of North America.

Location: La Paz, Baja California Sur, México

Website: https://www.pelagioskakunja.org