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.