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It has been The divers are two hours after the coast is left behind. When they reached their nominated GPS points in the Gulf of Mexico, their boat engines are whispering from roaring. In pairs, they entered the Celestan Fishing Refuge Zone, one of the largest in Mexico. Their conduct is perfect: apply the fins, adjust the nest and the hose, adjust the clean visas and load the oxygen tank and weight. For the next few minutes, their lives depend on preparing their dives in this place of hope.
They are seeking to recover the fisheries at the doorstep of the fall or collapse here. This shelter, established a No-Catch Zone In 2019C on 324 square kilometers and a group of Yukatan Coast Submarine Monitoring Community Group, Community Divers and Fishers, who are sustainable fisheries and aquaculture (IMIPA) and the Civil Association Community and BioDIVI (COBI). Their method mixes local knowledge with scientific hardness.
The problem they face is a global: excess fishing and environmental degradation are destroying the biodiversity of the oceans, in many countries, there is a lack of desires or resources to deal with problems. In 2024, sea-surface temperatures broke all-time records, global funds for nature Planet The report shows that the worldwide marine population has decreased by 56 percent in the last 6 years. More than a third of the current marine population overfisted.
In Mexico, more than 700 marine species are fished on 83 fisheries, which supports 200,000 Mexican families. Mexico analysis National Phishing Charter IMIPAS indicates that 17 percent of the country’s fisheries have declined, 62 percent are being absorbed at their highest sustainable level, and 15 percent of their state has no information in their state. When the non -profit Osiana of conservation analyzes the same information, it has been found that 34 percent of Mexico’s fisheries are “bad”, research and public policy coordinator Estaban Garcia told Paria.
One part of the problem is that under Mexican law, no one is obliged to look after the health of the country’s fisheries; The general fisheries law of Mexico does not force the government to take this responsibility. Osiana has appealed for a change and the Legislative Assembly also filed an order on human rights violations against the Congress of the Union in 2021, such as a healthy environment and food access. It inspired the proposal to recover the degraded phishing regions of Mexico, only to be analyzed or authorized by the Congress and the project was frosty.
In the face of this uncertainty, the communities have taken them in their own hands. Although the government is not obliged to protect and recover the fisheries of the country, people may request it that it can establish a shelter zone for the preservation and restoration of the marine ecosystem. And so today, there are refugees in Baja California, Quintana Ru and Camp, more than 2 million hectares more and directly or indirectly, the benefit of 130 species.
“When the first proposal was placed in front, it seemed insane,” Acoyculture and Fisheries Research for Regional Center, Eucalypton, said Aliceia Put. “Some people think it is off the sea, but it is not. It is working in a sustainable way with community supervision.”
The limit of abundance
On the day before the observation began, the cellstan team gathered under a large sail. Cobby scientific diving expert Jacobo Kamal reviewed the plan for the next few days. He gives a jokely practical suggestion, using coconut to show how to measure the ocean cucumber and sea snails.
They talk about sea moss because it is not part of the Mexican gastronomy, but its fishing has made a lot of profit on the coast. In the Chinese market these animals can bring more than $ 150 per plate. Hyp on top of Ichinoderm has driven practices that are harmful to the health of ecosystems and fishermen, such as diving using a HugA temporary diving machine that runs on the petrol and pumps oxygen at the bottom of a tube for the diver under the surface. Sanitary towels are sometimes standing as oil filters, while mint tablets are taken to alleviate the taste of the gas. In Celeston, no one denies the risk of diving with this machine. Many people know someone whose accidents have occurred or died of decompression.
Until 202, the region had a lot of cucumber, but its closed season violated the species to the end of extinction. The divers begin to be deeper and deeper to hunt them. The situation became unstoppable. After that, a group of fishermen sought help to set up an area of IMIPAS researchers where there could be an opportunity for sea recovery.