Environmental Challenges (Aug 2021)
Reported capture, fishery perceptions, and attitudes toward fisheries management of urban and rural artisanal, small-scale fishers along the Bahía de Banderas coast, Mexico
Abstract
Artisanal fishing is a very important activity for the subsistence of coastal inhabitants in Latin American countries. Increasingly, what has traditionally been a rural activity is being enveloped by urban expansion, resulting in urban-based artisanal fishers. We administered 98 questionnaires to artisanal fishers along the Jalisco coast of the Bahia de Banderas, on the Pacific Coast of Mexico. Approximately half of the participants belonged to each of urban (Puerto Vallarta) or rural collectives. The aim of the study was to understand the differences and similarities between urban and rural fishers with respect to demographics, fishing behaviors, assessments of past, current, and future fishing resources, attitudes towards fisheries management, and perceptions of human-environment relationships. The respondents represented an aging demographic with a low level of education. They reported catching 27 different species of fish, primarily of the Family Lutjanidae, although rural fishers reported a greater variety of species captured. Half of the respondents supplement fishing with a second form of income, a trend that is more prevalent in rural fishers. Fishers indicated that fishing was better in the past and predicted it will be poorer in the future; rural fishers were more negative about fishing conditions. Almost all fishers were concerned about the health of fish populations and three-quarters of them felt that fish populations are disappearing. Specific fishing practices were the highest cited problems facing fishing and making changes to these problems was identified to improve fishing. Half the respondents felt that there is conflict between artisanal and commercial sport fishers, but this is more prevalent in urban fishers. Respondents indicated that fishery managers need to do their job (e.g. resource monitoring, enforcement) and apply fisheries laws in order to help improve regional fisheries. Overall, concerns for a future sustainable fishery are reflected in an ecocentric view of humanity and nature by both groups, although it is often statistically greater in urban fishers. These results provide an insight into differences between urban and rural fishers that can be useful for local fisheries collectives, regional and federal fisheries management agencies, as well as global approaches to small-scale fisheries.
