Mexico Northern Gulf of California swimming crab - pot/trap

The swimming crab (Callinectes bellicosus) fishery is one of the most important in the northern region of Sonora, the capture is carried out mainly with Chesapeake-type traps by the small-scale fleet. However, in recent years a downward trend has been detected in the availability of crab and a group of fishermen concerned about this situation have looked for alternatives to improve the performance of the fishery. As a result, in April 2019 the fishery improvement project (FIP) of the swimming crab fishery from the Puerto Peñasco to Puerto Lobos Corridor in Sonora Mexico was registered in Fishery Progress. To carry out the registration of this FIP, the crab fishery was evaluated by means of a rapid assessment based on the criteria of the Marine Stewarship Council, under these terms the general performance of the fishery was analyzed and a work plan was developed.

During 2019 to 2023, opportunities for improvement have been detected in the work plan and in the possibility of analyzing the fishery for possible certification in the mid-term, it was therefore decided to evaluate the fishery again under a recent version of the MSC standard. The new environmental workplan represents the effort of the members of the basic swimming Crab FIP to review performance and direct actions towards improving fisheries sustainability specifically in the Bahia San Jorge region in the Northern Gulf of California, Mexico.