Mexico Sinaloa-Sonora blue shrimp - driftnet/cast net/bottom trawl (Direct Source Seafood)

Shrimp in the northwest Pacific coast of Mexico, including the Gulf of California, is the most important fishery in México. It has the highest economic value of landings, averaging $340 million. It is also the highest ranked fishery in terms of number of vessels (750 bottom trawlers and about 16,000 small-scale vessels) and number of direct jobs (37,000 direct jobs and 75,000 indirect ones). It places third in terms of volume with annual landings of approximately 42,000 tons during a season that begins in September and runs through March. The small-scale shrimp fishery in the Gulf of California contributes to these figures with annual landings of 16,000 tons, of which, 10,600 are produced in the Sonora-Sinaloa corridor.

According to the National Fisheries Institute the fishery is at the maximum sustainable yield therefore the management strategies are designed to maintain the reproductive biomass, protect the offspring, and avoid an increase the fishing effort. However, the absence of an updated, robust and publicly available stock assessment impedes to confirm the pertinence of the harvest strategy and control rules in place.

Regarding the environmental performance of the fishing gear, there is publicly available information on the drift gillnet and cast net environmental impacts, while there is not publicly available information for the bottom trawl. Other concerns present, related to the management system, include the lack of a fishery management plan that outlines the fishery specific objectives and the corresponding harvest strategy and control rules to achieve them.