Guaymas Road Trip

So we headed out on our first road trip to see :
- the manager of WWF Gulf of California Mexico
- land use of the coast from Bahia de Kino to Guaymas
- to visit visit with Anna-Louisa Figaro, The director of Flora and Fauna of the Islands of the Gulf of California
- to see the Estero Tastiorta
- to see the city of Guaymas and San Carlos

We started the trip by visiting the WWF ( World Wildlife Foundation). Their office is in San Carlos which is 15 miles north of Guaymas. These are some of my notes from the WWF presentation are:
- 9 people work in their office
- Their focus is on responding to expansion of agriculture, deforestation, aquaculture and alteration of habitat
- They mentioned many projects that they are working on which include:
*education comic to inform fishermen about no-take zones, environmental impact of fishing, and marine environemtnal laws
*research on designing a new fishing hook that would be less likely to kill a sea turtle if caught
*research on how trawling effects environment in order to reduce bycatch
*new designed shrimp cages for artisanal fishers
- They also had specific targets which included specific species and ecosystems such as:
*coastal wetlands
*rocky bottoms and reefs
*sandy bottoms
*pelagic fishes
*Vaquita
*sea turtles
- Their strategies for protecting these targets where:
* effective management of Marine Protected Areas
*Regulation and regionalization of small scale fisheries
*watershed management
*aquaculture management

After this meeting we went into the port of Guymas to see a historical port and the industries that are there.
We started at the central city square where there were statues of all the Mexican presidents that had been from Guaymas. Here we got a little background on the history of the city. Guaymas before european presence was Yaqui territory. The rest of the timeline is as follows:

- 1539: Ulloa claimed port for Spain
-1500s: explores secured ports in Mexico
-1600-1700: jesuit priests established important missions in Guaymas
- 1700s: agriculutural growth and fishing
-1800s: railroad stop established in Guaymas, population reaches 4,000
-1900s: industrial growth
-1960: PEMEX oil refinery/electricity generator built in city
- 1970: fiberglass pangas introduced to fishing in the area ( before this wooden pangas were used = quick evolution of panga technology)
-now: 200,000 population, imporant martime transport base, navy base, fish processing

Guaymas is an important division between the northern and southern gulf ecosystems. ( city hall)
From the city plaza we walked to where we could see the harbor better. From here we talked about the harbor and PEMEX station but I'm going to jump to the sewage "treatment" ponds because I think this is one of the most interesting things about Guaymas

Guaymas has city sewage plumbing but no sewage treatment center. Initially, before 2000, the city was directly dumping all city sewage in the ocean but this obviously became a sanitation problem. So in 2000, they decided to sacrifice a estuary for treatment ponds which are only primary treatment of the sewage. This means they only remove large objects, sand, and sedimentation.
There are three of these ponds which lie on a negative incline out to the ocean. These ponds filter the 11 cubic ton of sewage that is dumped into them each year. It is sad to think that before 2000 this valley was an estuary and sanctuary to many migratory birds. The stench of these ponds is indescribable. I'll I can say is that the only kind of creature that enjoys this kind of habitat is :
( a pig)
There is no protection for this kind of treatment against natural disasters and in the past Guaymas has had sewage breaches when Hurricane pass through. From Guaymas we went to back to San Carlos.

The next day we met with Anna-Louisa Figaro who is the The director of Flora and Fauna of the Islands of the Gulf of California.

Rather than write the actual notes from her talk I think that it is more important to mention my impression of the talk. Coming out of the meeting, my first thought was that conservation efforts all over the world need dynamic and engaging personalities like Anna Louisa- Figaro. She has been able to bring together many different groups which include NGOs and many different governmental agencies and has fostered communication within these entities in order to make conservation efforts happen...this is definitely a large light a hope in what what can be a depressing cloud of failure to protect our natural resources. She is also able to look at the whole picture of what is involved with a conservation effort such as: the research of natural resources, the resources themselves, the community affecting the resources, the community involvement protecting these resources, governmental enforcement to protect these resources, community education etc.

After meeting with Anna Lousia Figaro we went to Tastiota which is a small community on the coast which has been devastated by big business aquaculture. Tastiota is a village of 30-70 people which lies on an estuary. This estuary is home to 17 different species of nesting birds, crabs, the nursery for many different invertebrates.

Aquaculture is exploded out of the estuary to the point that saying it is disgusting is an understatement. Even though the aquaculture hasn't bulldozed the estuary itself they are still dumping their pond water into the estuary. This is causing sediment build up within the estuary. When we walked out to the ocean we could see the darkened waters that were flowing from the estuary.The people of Tastiota have traditionally fished for crab out in the ocean and done very small scale oyster farming. However they are not able to do this anymore because they are no longer to get their boats out to the ocean due to the sediment build up in the estuary. They are also not able to farm oysters because the oysters are dying out due to the fact that they are filter feeders.

This town is fighting back. Even though this estuary fell through the cracks of environmental conservation it can still be saved by the people of Tastiota. They have hired a lawyer to try to take on the big corporations who are ruining their livelihood.
(snowy egret)

After this trip I came away with many feelings of hopefulness from the dynamic environmental leaders that we met but also sadness from the environmental disasters that we saw such as the the Tastiota aquaculture and Guaymas dump. This trip showed me that there is a pressing need for biological research of coastal ecosystems and a need for NGO involvement for protecting coastal ecosystems.

I also had a conversation at Tastiota which is important to reiterate here:
I also feel that we no longer can wait around for communication to happen between governmental agencies, NGOs and scientists. We do not have the time for people to start caring about the natural resources that we are exploiting. We need change now or the opportunity to save some of the most biologically diverse environments will fade away. Watching aquaculture farms take over the desert breaks my heart. It blows my mind away how people can be so driven by money and greed. We are facing a tragedy of the commons on every scale by our loss of global natural habitat. The future is dependent on radical action to conserve the organisms and ecosystems that we haven't already destroyed.

Beginning of Coastal Development Unit / La Borbolla Shrimp Aquaculture Plant

Today was our introduction to the coastal development unit. This unit is composed of issues dealing with aquaculture, agriculture, commercial development, industrial development, residential use, and tourism. This field trip was mostly concerned with aquaculture. At the beginning of the day we visited the plant that grows the shrimp larvae.

Then we headed off to the shrimp aquaculture farm:
( These are the empty shrimp ponds)
At the shrimp farm/plant we were given a tour of the whole process of how they raise the shrimp by the manager of the plant, Cesar Patinlla. We were inundated with information about
- periods of harvest ( one harvest per year)
- how shrimp they grow per hectare ( 5 metric tons/hectare)
- 360 hectares at this farm divided into 55 ponds
- water input and output
- etc
I focused on environmental impact, my report is :

What are the environmental laws that need to be complied with?

• Sanitary regulation laws for shrimp larvae
• There is a good environmental practice certificate that the government agency SEGARPA is in charge of. Currently this certificate is optional and the La Borbolla Farm is only one of five to have this certificate.
• SEMARNAT also has water output laws
• In order to get the good practice certificate, CIAD, a independent lab, conducts water testing for heavy metals, cauliform, pH levels, antibiotics, and suspended particulates
• CIAD tests at beginning, middle and end of every harvest. It costs 30,000 pesos per testing session
• FDA requires that any antibiotics that have been applied must out of the shrimps bodies within 30 days before they are harvested
• At the moment, the farm is in the process of complying with European laws which are much higher than the US standards in order to be able to sell the product to these markets.

What steps need to be taken to comply (how many employees )?

They have two hired biologists plus a manager oversees the testing operations.

What is done?

These biologists conduct tests once a week for bacterial levels of the water and of the shrimp. Due to this weekly testing, the farm might apply antibiotics for diseased ponds or either flush or aerate the ponds to change oxygen levels. They also check the shrimp for any types of diseases.

Once the harvesting has begun the biologists move to the processing plant to monitor shrimp quality once they have been packaged.

Environmental impacts of the operation:

i. Water quality and nutrient input to the ocean/estuary ecosystem

· Larvae plant needs federal permit to intake water for plant use

· The La Borbolla Farm is a semi-intensive system which refers to whether the plant aerates their ponds or not. This farm does not do aeration unless it is an emergency. This limits their overall production levels, yet saves them the costs of running aerators constantly.

· There are federal output nutrient laws that regulate how much excess nutrients can be put into the open ocean

ii. Additives and their impact (antibiotics, fertilizers)

· They use inorganic fertilizers to grow phytoplankton, which is fed upon by the shrimp larvae

· Antibiotics that are used to treat any diseases that the shrimp may have are supposedly only active for a couple of hours to a few days depending on the disease they are treating and environmental conditions.

iii. Habitat alteration

· This farm is unique in that it was developed not in conjunction with the presence of an estuary; it is completely on solid land and a mile or two inland from the ocean. It was the first of its kind in the world when it was created ten years ago.

· The input water, from the open ocean, comes to the plant from man made canals that are dredged often.

iv. Impacts on wildlife

· Many birds are attracted to the aquaculture farm especially seagulls, terns, pelicans, and other seabirds. The seagulls can only reach the dead or sick shrimp at the top of the pond to feed on. Thus the farm uses the seagulls as an indicator of a problem in the pond.

· The farm has also had a problem with larger birds that would eat the shrimp out of the pond, chiefly the brown pelican. They used to shoot these birds until they found it ineffective and against the law.

· Since this aquaculture plant is not in an estuarian environment it has allowed estuaries close by to continue to provide critical habitat for developing invertebrates and migrating birds.

· Output waters that may have higher levels of nutrients may cause algal blooms that can lead to fish die outs in the open ocean due to oxygen depletion

We then moved onto the processing plant so that we could see the full shrimp producing process. We had to dress up for this event :
Here at the plant we saw the shrimp being deheaded, froazen and packaged. The workers are paid 120 pesos ( 12 dollars) a day plus 2 pesos ( 20 cents) per 5 lb tray of shrimp that they dehead.

In order to show you the process of us seing this plant I will walk you through the plant by pictures:

- First we had to wash our hands and walk through this disinfactant


- We then walked into the deheading room


- I can not imagine having this job and being paid so little, it is important to note that most of these workers come from southern mexico due to the fact that the people from Kino and the surrounding area won't work for the wages offered.



- After they get deheaded they are sized by weight by a machine


- And then they are put into trays

- Frozen

- And shipped of to an american grocery store near you

Isla San Pedro Martir

We finally made it out to San Pedro Martir! After having a couple of horribly windy days we finally get a calm smooth water day. My presentation was on San Pedro Martir so I was excited to get out to the island that I had been learning so much about.

At the dock (8:00am) at the water temperature was 69.5 degrees Fahrenheit. There was only 2 trawlers to be seen in the bay however there were quite a few interesting birds just off the boat ramp such as a snowy egret and magnificent frigate birds.

To get out to San Pedro Martir you have to pass between Isla Alcatraz and Turner Island heading south west. As you head out we reached a ridge of a underwater mountain where the depth was 124 ft and then the depth from there gets much deeper as you keep heading out.

Around 9:10 we saw a whale from the baleen family which we thought was either a fin whale or a Bryde's Whale. The whale was surfacing at 10 minute intervals and was moving quite quickly so we did not get a good chance to observe it but it was still so amazing to be able to see a whale at all. The depth was 400ft when we saw the whale. ( San Pedro Martir off in the distance)

As we moved closer to San Pedro Martir we saw around 100 individuals of long-nose common dolphins. This group of about 100 individuals was interesting because they were very spread out which we haven't seen before. The depth here was 680 ft.

We finally make it to the island and the water here is a frigid 64 degrees. We were greeted by the sea lions :



San Pedro Martir is extremely important to nesting seabirds which include Red-billed Tropicbirds, blue-footed boobies, and brown pelicans. . The island is unique in that it has no sandy beaches but instead is covered in steep rhyolite and basement rock cliffs.The birds however have been negatively affected by invasive rats that were introduced to the island by guano miners in the late 1880's. Luckily, there is a eradication program planned to go through next week which the class is going to help out with. This eradication has been 5-8 years in the planning so it is very exciting. As we circled the island I got a tutoral on the spanish translation of many ocean organisms:

whale - ballena
sea cuccumber - pepino de mar
fish - pescado
dolphin - delfin
sea lion - lobo marino
lobster - langosta
octopus - pulpo
crab - cangrejo
clam - almeja
eel - anguila
sea turtle - canguama
sea urchin - erizo
shark - tiburon

As we passed the south west point we went out into the San Pedro Martir Trench to try to see Sperm Whales which are known to pass through this trench. As we waited to see if the whales were here we had Kevin's presentation on trenches in the gulf. He told us that the San Pedro Martir trench is 3,000 feet deep. At the bottom of this trench lies some of the newest land in the world as it extrudes from a crack in the earth's surface. Most of the trenches in the gulf are narrow however still very deep. One of the deepest trenches in the gulf is the Guaymas tench at 6,000 ft which is in the southern gulf .

After awhile we gave up on seeing the whales since we had already seen one in the morning and decided that we didn't want to waste anymore time when we could be snorkeling so we headed back to San Pedro Martir to snorkel.

This snorkel session was by far the best so far. I saw my first green sea turtle and the sea lions were amazing to swim with.

We headed back around the island after our session and waved goodbye to the brown and blue-footed boobies of the island. This was by far my favorite trip.

Isla San Esteban

Today we try again for Isla San Esteban. I am starting to get very used to this route as we pass Turner Island and Isla Cholludo. The water temperature at the boat launch today is 73.8 degrees Fahrenheit. We count 12 shrimp trawlers out in the bay and 1 sport fisher boat off the coast of Tiburon.

We saw a group of Longbeak Common Dolphins again today in the San Esteban trench. We took down the citing info which included: temperature (68.3), time ( 9:23), beaufort scale ( 1), depth ( >2,000ft), location ( San Esteban Trench), # of individuals ( 15-20), associated species (brown boobies), and behavior ( foraging). We assume that the dolphins are often here to forage due to the high productivity. This high productivity is associated with the upwelling up currents.

Today we also had a Seri elder, Manuel Flores Flores along with us. As we were off the coast of San Esteban he explained to us that the Seri have sacred marine spots which are usually situated in the confluences of currents. Off of Isla San Esteban lies one of these confluences. In the spring these currents create a physical barrier between Isla Tiburon and Isla San Esteban. So back in the day when the Serris would travel in boats called balsas they would use songs to rally courage against these currents, to change bad weather, to keep up stamina and just for fun. Manuel is on the Council of Ancients and is specifically fluent in the seri songs ( only 1/3 elders left who know all of the songs). One of the songs he sang for us was the Song of the Great Tide.


( Sorry that this video is sideways, I'm still learning to use my video-camera)
Other songs that Manuel sang for us include: Song for future good weather, Song for sea lion and shrimp competition, festival song, and The Concluding Song.

Other things that we learned about the seris include the fact that they consider the Leatherback turtle a member of their tribe. There were also fluid Seri population movements between Isla San Esteban and Isla Tiburon which were caused by resource availability.

Once we got onto the island we were greeted by a group of military. They were stationed on the island and were patrolling the any boat activity. They were as nice as military can be and did not give us much trouble.

We unloaded from the boat and took a short walk up to a spot were we could sit and learn more about the natural history of the island. We sat under a giant cardon. This picture includes a close up of some of the arms.

San Esteban has 2 minor campsites one for winter and one for summer.The rest of the San Esteban information is included in the handout.

From Emma's presentation we learned more information on the Seri presence on the island including the fact that the Seri camps were often found in places of non-permanent water sources. The group of Seris that lived here were known for their bravery and ability to live in harsh conditions. They lived here until the 1970s after that they were driven off the island by the military.
After the presentation we headed back to the boat to continue around the island. On the walk back we found San Esteban Chuckawalla which is endemic to the island.
As we followed the southern coast we saw small beaches with sea lions on them. These small beaches are used for mating spots by the sea lions. At the south western point there is Playa El Cascajal where the sea lions hang out. San Esteban has the largest sea lion colony in the Gulf of California. The waters off of this sand bar were filled mackerel. We rounded the sand bar and came upon a large dugg-out in the side of the island.
After this we went to our snorkeling spot. At first I was a little hesitant to get into the water with sea lions swimming around us but once I got in my fears subsided. It was interesting to be able to compare the snorkel spot from Las Cruces to the one here. Here the water depth seemed more deeper and less tide-pool like. I feel like the area of Las Cruces had a variety of different organisms specializing in areas of different depth but that the total ecosystem was compacted into a smalled total depth. Whereas at the San Esteban site these layers of the ecosystem where more clearly defined. I also was able to identify some organisms such as the King Angelfish unlike at Las Cruces where I was purely observing without the knowledge to id fish.

After a very productive snorkel session we headed out around the last section of the island. It was interesting to note the CONANP (La Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas) sign that was put up on the what was thought to be the fishing camp. Unfortunately the place that they put it in is not the fishing camp but instead a site of part of the sea lion colony. In oder to read the small print "do not land" sign you must land thus disturbing the sea lions. Often when the colonies are disturbed the dominant males will head to the water first trampling the pups. Thus this is an example of a environmental government agency being completely out of touch with reality.

As we headed back to the mainland we passed a resident group of Bottlenose Dolphins off the coast of Isla Tiburon.



( Wait till the second part of the video to see the dolphins.)

Las Cruces

So today we headed out for Isla San Estaban. On the way there we saw a school of sierra mackerel just off of the boat dock. My first observations of the bay was that there were not many local fishermen out. The water temperature at the boat dock was 72.4 degrees Fahrenheit and the water depth is 19ft. The ocean bottom just off shore of the dock is sandy due to the sedimentation deposits of the Rio Sonora. In the morning the water was very turbid and we could not see the bottom even at a small depth of 19 feet.There was a beaufort scale of 0.

As we got out to cross between the mainland and into the channel between Isla Tiburon and Turner Island we saw one crab fisherman. As we went we saw patches of red algae ( water temperature of 67.3 degrees Fahrenheit at this point) which we speculated to be red tide.Ride tide is a common name for a biological occurrence where there are algae booms. Some of these red tides are natural and some are caused by nutrient loading. Either way red tides are not good for the environment. Many of the algae blooms are made up of plankton. Some species of plankton produce toxins which can be detrimental to other organisms such as fish, birds, and marine mammals.


We headed towards Isla San Esteban we came upon a group of long nose common dolphins. This group we estimated to include 80-120 individuals. After seeing these dolphins we realistized that it was not going to be possible to go to San Esteban due to the high winds. So we decided to go to Las Cruces which is a bay off of Isla Tiburon.

Las Cruces has significance for many different groups of people including: the military, the Seri and the current fishermen. The military built a small brick house right off of the beach. This shack is now used by fishermen. Before this, the Seris lived here up until the 1970s.

After we arrived at Las Cruces we were joined by a boat of fishermen. We discussed that they were probably illegally fishing because they were not fishing during the day. Most local fishermen fish only during the day so if they are out but not fishing they are probably diving for sea cucumber at night which is illegal.

Ben and Allen also did some of their San Esteban presentation but I will include this info when we do that trip.

We also got to snorkel here which was amazing. The area that we snorkeled in was slightly shallow to mid depth tide pools ( 3 to 10 ft ). This picture shows some of the area were went snorkeled and we also went around the point in the picture.

( I did not feel very well this day, so I was not abel to take in as more information as a wanted)

Goals for Field Journal

- description of each field outing
- pictures that depict major sights or events
- list of organisms that I see plus latin names
- analysis of outings while using class material

Kino Viejo/ Estero Santa Cruz

We explored Kino Viejo today in order to get an idea of what the town is like. As we started walking around I saw this little kid playing in his yard and I thought that he was adorable but on to more important things. We walked down to the beach where the fish market is but I think most people sell there catch in the morning so we did not find a lot of people to talk to so we decided to walk on further. An interesting observation from the beach to point out is that a pedestrian dock that had been added recently was torn up due to a Hurricane that they had come through a couple months ago. We decided to walk on some of the side streets in hope that we might find some people that we could talk to. We ended up finding several people sitting up on their patio. One of the men, Juan, asked us if we wanted to buy some shrimp ( in perfect English). From there we asked him what he did for a living and he said that he had recently moved down to Kino from New Mexico. He added that he had been working dry wall jobs there for a while before he was caught; he did not have his documents. We asked him if he knew anything about the fishing in town. He said that the shrimp fishing had been down this year. He told us that when he had first arrived in town he got a job as a gviotas. A gviotas (seagull) is a job where you help out any of the boats at the dock with unloading their catch and scrubbing down the boats. You can earn some money or a portion of the catch doing this. We learned that many people make a living buying fish from the fishermen for a cheap price, if they personally know the fisherman, and then sell it at a slightly lower price. He said that the price for shrimp was 70-80 pesos/kilo for the smaller shrimp( 50 pesos if you know the fishermen), and 120 pesos/kilo for the bigger shrimp. There are about 200-300 panagas that fish from Bahia de Kino. Another interesting thing that Juan mentioned is that he used to be able to lie his way through the border but that this has changed due to stricter regulations.

After talking to Juan we had to get back to the van to go to the estuary. As we drove, we passed Dictus, Unidad Experimental Kino. This is the group who does most of the research concerning pollution and aquaculture nutrient output. Ramon Rembasas is the director.

We reached Estero Santa Cruz around sunset and the estuary was filled with different birds. Estuaries are biologically important due to the fact that they provide coastal habitat for wintering birds. They are also the nursery grounds for many different invertebrates. The history on Estero Santa Cruz is that they Rio Sonora used to flow into it which has resulted in the sediment rich state it has today. Santa Cruz is the largest estuary in Sonora. It is an interesting estuary because it is an ecotone meaning it lies between two ecosystem in this case mangrove and salt marsh. Santa Cruz has three different kinds of mangrove: red, white, and black. Estuaries have a diurnal tide in which it comes in and out twice a day.

Within the estuary there are Japanese oyster aquaculture beds. Oyster aquaculture compared to shrimp aquaculture has a lesser environmental impact due to the fact that they do not add in nutrients for them to grow. Oysters unlike shrimp are filter feeders and thus obtain all of their food from the estuarian water. The oysters that are grown here from the Ojai aquaculture plant are made for national consumption.

Some of the birds that we saw include:White ibis, white pelican, reddish egret, willet, long billed curlew, clapper rail, wimbrill, yellow crown night heron, and spotted sandpiper. We also saw fiddler crabs ( see picture) It is easy to see that the mudflats are healthy due to the diversity of birds found there.

Punta Chueca

Today we headed to the Seri ( native tribe) village of Punta Chueca. This village is about 15 miles north of Bahia de Kino. In order to get there you have to take a dirt road; the picture here shows one of the flatter and less bumpy parts of the road.

Just before getting to Punta Chueca we stopped to see Estero Santa Rosa (Santa Rosa Estuary) and the Canel elInfiernillo (Canal of Hell). The canel is rightly named due to the high winds and currents that blow through the passage. The estuary is home to mangrove trees which shelter many unique kinds of flora and fauna including invertebrate nursing grounds. The picture shows the thin strip of water which is the canal between the mainland and IslaTiburon. The point of land in the middle of the picture is the estuary.

























It is interesting to note that the Seri stoodtheir ground against colonization for a very long time from the Spanish and still are vigilante about their territory. There is a clear sign when going into their territory and they completely run their land without the Mexican government. Having that said it was interesting to run into a truck of Mexican soldiers on the way to Punta Chueca who usually do not go into Seri land. As we got into Punta Chueca, we were looking for one of the elders of the village who is good friends with the Station; his name was Alfredo. We ended up finding him in a new mangrove nursery that the village is planting. We did not get to find out much about this project but hopefully we will learn more about it later. We were hoping to get a chance to talk to Alfredo but it was not possible at this time so we walked around the town instead.



















My first impressions of the town was: lots of trash, cars are either pretty nice or completely stripped of parts, and lots of people outside of the homes cooking and talking. When walking through the town we saw people of all ages. We stopped briefly at one house where some people were sitting outside and asked them what they did for a living. One of the men said that he was a fishermen and that the blue swimming crab fishing had been good this year. Everywhere you went there were lot of dogs and kids who were all very friendly. The Seri are used to, to some extent, American tourist due to the retired population in Bahia de Kino. They have been selling their artisan crafts to tourists since the 1970's. Things that they make include: shell bracelets and necklace, woven baskets and whale tooth jewelry. We were offered and sometimes pushed to buy these gifts as the group was discovered by some of the makers. While many of their homes were very small you could tell that their panagas ( fiberglass boat) were important to them.




















Even though I would rather say that I didn't I had many judgments running through my head as a walked through the village. One of the major
judgments was why is there so much trash everywhere and why is there so much stuff just lying on the ground. After the field trip I had an interesting discussion explaining my observation. The other person said that before the introduction of western plastics to the village it was easy to throw an unwanted seashell or shrimp head on the ground. Now that the plastics and non-biodegradables are there they accumulate due to this continued practice. The Seris are a very proud people and do not like being told to change their culture, rightly so.

As we drove home we saw a shrimp larvae farming plant ( the place where they are at before the go into an aquaculture farm) which is very close to the station.

Today I enjoyed seeing the Serri village but wished we had been able to spend more time there. Some of the questions that I have are:
- What kinds of ecological projects are the Serri working on?
- Is there any involvement or education of the young people in the village in ecological projects?
- Is the Punta Chueca community population stable?

Isla Alcatraz / 1st boat day / October 11

Today was our first boat day and it was nice to get out of the research station and onto the water. The aim for this outing was to give us a brief introduction to the of the geography of the area, a tour of Isla Alcatraz, and to see some of the fishing being done off the coast. The two boats we had were The Albatross which is a 230 horsepower boat. The other boat is The Lobo Marino and much smaller than the Albatross. Both boats were bought with money given to the station by the National Science Foundation. After leaving the boat dock we could notice the two different types of rock that the coastline was made out of: volcanic and granite. We rounded the a small point and the town of Kino came into view.


On the picture below is Kino Nuevo which is the section of Bahia de Kino in which the station is located in. You can also notice the beautiful white church which sits on a hill right outside of town. Along the coast there are a few restaurants and bars but mostly homes of the locals and Americans ( I will get to them later). Along the beach and in the shallows you can find blue swimming crabs, sting rays, and other creatures that I have yet to identify yet. In this part of Mexico the desert comes right up to the ocean with the occasional tide pool in between. In Kino there is a notable American population of retired people who come to the region to fish. They own many of the homes in Kino Nuevo (New Kino) compared to the mostly Mexican Kino Viejo (Old Kino). They also run a volunteer rescue service called rescue 1 which the station also uses. Rescue 1 also keeps tract of what boats are in the water, their previewed destinations and the times that they expected to be back.

After cruising along the coast for awhile we went out to where some of the shrimp and crab fishermen where. We counted 16 local boats out on the water. The person driving our boat was named Cosme. He has been hired by the field station to captain some of the boat outings and to do repairs on the boats. He has lived in Bahia de Kino all his life and uses the station job to supplement his income. He is also a fisherman and knew most of the other fishermen out on the water. This is a picture of his brother and friend who are fishing for blue shrimp. The local fishermen use nets of 500 meters and can expect to pull up 4 to 50 kilos of shrimp depending on the day.While this boat only had two people on it there are usually 3 fishermen working on a boat. The other organism that the locals fish for is blue swimming crab.Locals started fishing for crab in 1994. They use cages and bait to catch the crab. The locals for the most part fish during the day. The fishing is regulated through a governmental organization called PESCA which hands out permits. These permits are bought out by the cooperatives in which most of the fishermen belong to. There are 4 to 5 cooperatives in Kino. This year the shrimp fishing season started on September 18 for the local fishermen and September 28 for the shrimp trawlers. A governmental agency called the CRIP recommends the opening and closing dates. Shrimp fishing season is always closed during the summer due to the fact that it is their breeding time. Shown here is one of the blue shrimp that they gave us.

After seeing the shrimp and talking to these shrimp fishermen we went to Isla Alcatraz (Alcatraz Island) This volcanic island is a half a mile off the coast and is home to the nesting grounds of 11 species of birds. On our way over we saw a small pod of sea lions( Lobo marino) . In the picture they are laying on their backs with their flippers out of the water. Scientists really do not know why they do this but one hypothesis is that they are trying to regulate their temperature. As we walked on the beach of this island we noticed many discarded fish heads. They come from the local fishermen who often clean them here before selling them in town. On the island we saw double breasted cormorants, brown pelicans( started nesting on the island in 1994), yellow footed gulls, black vultures, and great blue herons and brown boobies. This island is protected due to its ecological value of the nesting colonies. In order to get the island protected the PC research station, over five years, formed a management document that included a biological inventory of the island, how the island was going to be managed, and how education was going to be incorporated. In making this plan they also assessed the users of the island and how much of an impact they had upon the birds and other wildlife found there. After much research they wrote up the plan and sent it to the Commission of Natural Protected Areas( a Mexican governmental agency) which in the end recognized Alcatraz's ornithological importance. Isla Alcatraz which is only 1.4 km sq has the largest nesting double breasted cormorant colony in the Gulf of California and one of largest on the western coast. Most of the birds on the island nest in the spring and summer. However the cormorant is unique in that it nests during the fall. Today we only saw a few cormorants nesting but nesting activities should be picking up. On the same picture with the seals you can see some of the brown pelicans on the island. One important note about the island is that it is home to the only fish eating bat in the world. This bat is truly endemic meaning that it is only found in one place in the world. One problem the Isla Alcatraz is that it is facing is a growing population of non native house mice which destroy bird eggs during nesting periods. More research is needed before an extermination plan can be formed. Close to the coast of Isla Alcatraz is a few oyster agriculture cages. They were put there by the government as an experimental project to see if they could be successfully farmed there. The project has not been successful so far.
Other random points about the island:
- 4 species of iguana were introduced to the island which are native to the mainland
- a PC student senior project in 1997 focused on double crested cormorant monitoring found that their population numbers are relatively stable at 1100 pairs

After leaving the isla we saw 12 otter trawl boats.(I am not sure why they are called otter trawl boat because they have nothing to due with otters but rather shrimp) It is important to distinguish the difference between these boats and the local net boats . These boats are not from Bahia de Kino; they are from the larger ports and sell to large corporations which in turn get sold in U.S supermarkets...for the most part. Trawl boats usually are run by 7 to 8 people. Besides where they sell their shrimp another difference between them and the locals is that they use a trawl instead of nets. This is much more environmentally damaging. A trawl is a vertical board that has a net attached to the back of it which is dragged along the bottom of the sea. They usually trawl for around 4 hours and then pull up the catch. This method of fishing destroys the corals and sponges that many fish depend upon. Another difference is that these fishermen fish at night. Throughout the night the fishermen will usually pull up the trawl between 2 to 4 times. From the beach you can see the lights of these boats at night. One way that these boats are involved with the town of Kino is through their bycatch (everything that they pull up which they are not fishing for or in this case everything that is not shrimp). They sell their bycatch to people called huateros. Huateros are locals who do not have a permit to fish but are able to sell the bycatch of trawlers. Huateros are seen as pirate fishermen and very untrustworthy. Trawlers are also seen poorly by the locals because of the water contamination that they cause.

Finally we visited the intake spot of an aquaculture farm. We learned that farmed shrimp eat half their weight every day. In aquaculture farms this food comes in the form of sardine meal. Aquaculture farms have many environmental implications such as: outtake nutrient loading, habitat destruction, and high rate of disease among farmed shrimp. In the kino region white shrimp are farmed. The land that these farms lays on once used to by Ejido land or communal land but was sold when communal lands were no longer required by the government.

Today was a great day because it put a human and ecological face on the issues we are studying. When one is given the chance to meet some local shrimp fishermen or visit an island containing the nesting colony of a migrating bird it helps to connect the academic and practical knowledge. This is very important for me. I am very excited to be able to learn more about the different players who are involved in the shrimp fishing economy. I specifically want to know more about the different local opinions of the shrimp trawlers.