Playa Del Carmen sharks killed?

[orm]

It's not that black and white. For years there's friction between divers and fishermen, it's going to happen. They are pointing out that for decades they fished and then we came along and are trying to stop them. But fish stocks are being battered, the world is changing and people need to be educated.


The market for shark fins is clearly decimating sharks as a whole with a lot of species now near extinction, but a lot of shark numbers are being reduced through by-catching, that is the shark isn't the prime target, but through depletion of other food sources is leading them to be pulled up on the long lines, I think this is what's happening here in Playa.

As for feeding, I believe that by training the Playa Bulls to feed from us, training them to associate food with us and the sounds of boats isn't helping the matters and is creating easy pools to fish from. Shooting fish in a barrel.

The migratory bull shark population here in Playa is a unique event and has a lot of attention from international marine biologists, we should be proud of this and work with them to study, tag and celebrate their presence here, but we, as divers, are treating them like dancing horses. We have to have responsibility in the oceans we inhabit as divers. That means behaving responsibly and not effecting the behaviour of these apex predators in any way.

Overall we need a combined effort of education, an enforced marine protection area and to respect the natural habitat of the marine life, which means no shark feeding.


Until this happens, we can expect to see gruesome sights like this more often.


People can also check out stop shark finning websites and actively boycott restaurants that serve fin soup, spread the word and help put an end to this.

The tide is turning slowly, but everyone needs to be behind this.

 

[elletek]

What happens when these sharks are all gone from PDC? Will they start fining the manta rays at Cozumel? I don't think any amount of education will stop the slaughter. Regulations need to be in place to ban this activity worldwide with a high penalty to the perpetrator. Money talks both ways.

 

[orm]

What happens when these sharks are all gone from PDC? Will they start fining the manta rays at Cozumel? I don't think any amount of education will stop the slaughter. Regulations need to be in place to ban this activity worldwide with a high penalty to the perpetrator. Money talks both ways.

Getting world-wide ban on shark finning is the ideal, but I don't see this happening for a long time, if at all. The plight of the whales is a perfect example of how countries will willingly flaunt international law.

What will happen in Playa when all the bulls have gone? Well they don't live here year round, they're migratory, spending much of the winter here at depths beyond recreational limits, they're not alone, they have some hammerheads here > 60 metres or so.

The bulls are unique in that they stray shallower and come in shore more (whether through feeding or other unknown reasons), and it's this act which leaves them vulnerable.

Will the fishermen go to Cozumel and fin rays? Doubtful. Coz has a marine protection for much of the day. There's also not much requirement for ray fins. With the shark they get the cash for the fin and also for the meat that they sell as a cheap generic fish meat.

And yes, they are needing to go out further. Their usual stocks of grouper and langostin have pretty much dried up, forcing them to cast their net further afield.

 

[Geofish Dive in Playa]

We are not even seeing them there anymore, but I will edit that, good idea.

 

[Ottermx]

It would be terrible if they were killed. I saw them on the 18 of December and hope they turn out soon. To dive with them one day and hearing a couple of days later that they may have been finned made me realize that while all the projects of a fishing ban or a protected area are great and should be followed for as long as it takes, they may come a bit too late. We should do something now.

Just to stir better ideas than my own, here's my 2 cents.

If the fishermen take them for money, why not "buy" them for ourselves?

I read in a petition that the shark dives attract 100 divers a day for 5 months (100X5X30=15,000). Let's be more conservative and take half of that. Imagine 7,500 divers paying a fee (similar to a recompression chamber fee) to dive with the sharks. Say 50 pesos. That's 375,000 pesos. If Playa del Carmen has 50 sharks, we would be able to "buy" each shark from the fishermen for 7,500 pesos. That would be much more than the 1,000 pesos minus fishing expenses I heard the fisherman get for each shark. And they would get it every year or until the fishing ban or Marine Park is in place. Anyway 7,500 a year is way better than 1,000 just once for a dead shark. We can even tweak the numbers and pay for someone to patrol the area or the fishermen may even police themselves so no one captures the sharks. Each dead shark would be money out of their pockets.

Of course the details will be difficult and should be decided by persons in the field. How will it be
organized? Who will keep the money? Who will get it? How should it be distributed? How can we make sure no one else try to catch the sharks? When and how and how many times should the sharks be counted? Would it be easier to pay by each successful shark dive? Should there be a penalty if someone catches a shark? It will not be easy to define all this, but between divers and dive shops I am sure something can be done to convince the fishermen that fishing for sharks is bad business.

This way we won't depend until the authorities react and we could buy time until the fishing ban or the protected area comes into being. In the meantime the dive shops can gather more signatures to get support from the authorities. But even with the support, the authorities may not have the resources to watch the protected areas. This "buying live sharks" would also show the fishermen that it is in their best interest to have a healthy reef and show them how a live shark is way better than a dead shark. After all they are not the "evil enemy" and are not fishing sharks for sport; they are trying to make a living like the rest of us. Maybe this idea sounds too focused on economics and does not address the issues of education and conscience, but this could also be the beginning to make the fishermen stop thinking of themselves as such and make them start thinking of themselves as stewards and start managing the resources instead of having the "if I don't catch them someone else will" attitude.

I am sure people on the board have more and better ideas. Post them. Maybe write directly to your dive shop in Playa to let them know they have your support for shark conservation and keep the momentum going.

Sorry for any misspellings. English is not my first language.

 

[stevep4444]

I happen to really like the area stretching from Isla Mujeres down to Tulum but Mexico keeps shooting itself in the foot. It just keeps giving people reasons not to visit. What are the barriers to having the waters along Playa to Akumal designated a marine park? That area looks to me like it is more dependent on tourism than fishing,especially fishing of species that are endangered. Please help me understand.

 

[flofish94]

Close all the Chin. restaurant around there.