Mexico Sinaloa artisanal blue shrimp – drift/cast nets

The Sinaloa artisanal shrimp FIP started in 2009 under the coordination of the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP). FIP coordination and leadership was transferred to the industry in February 2015. All of the activities, improvements, and achievements of that period are reported in the following here.

The Pacific Ocean is the most productive fishing area in Mexico, providing approximately 75 percent of seafood catch by volume, and accounting for most of the country’s seafood exports by value. Shrimp in the northwest Pacific coast of Mexico, including the Gulf of California, is the most important fishery in Mexico. It has the highest economic value of landings, averaging $260 million. It is also the highest ranked fishery in terms of the number of vessels (750 bottom trawlers and about 18,000 small-scale vessels) and the number of direct jobs (37,000 direct jobs as well as 75,000 indirect ones). It places third in terms of volume with annual captures of approximately 50,000 tons during the fishing season that begins in September and runs through March.

The Sinaloa artisanal shrimp fishery contributes to 25% of the Northwest production with the participation of 12 thousand vessels and a workforce of 24 thousand fishermen. Vessels are equipped with outboard motors (used mainly for transportation purposes, because the gear is operated with the wind/tide currents).

The fishery is regulated by the Mexican Official Standard and, according to the National Fisheries Institute, stocks are exploited at maximum sustainable levels with seasonal variations in captures related to environmental variations.

In October 2017, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch Program published a new report and recommendations on Mexican wild shrimp, giving the fishery a Good Alternative recommendation. The new recommendations can be found here. The full report can be downloaded from here.

Since January 2018, Del Pacifico started their own sustainability department that will coordinate the guidelines of the Project and organize further commitments to improve the fishing practices, evaluation and fisher’s communities. In addition to this, by the end of 2019, Del Pacifico decided to switch for a Comprehensive FIP in order to address all the areas that need improvement.