Marine Impacts
The flow of sedimentation and other contaminants from building
activities and land use change has the potential to cause severe
damage to the marine ecosystems of the Loreto region. Sediment loading
will damage, in particular, the benthic communities that inhabit the
bottom of the ocean floor that are critical to the functioning of the
other marine ecosystems. In turn, this will impact the quality and
quantity of local fish and shellfish production. The quantity of
sediment flows is an important determinant of damage, as is the
content of these sediment flows. The presence of toxic waste
associated with human activities and untreated sewage will exacerbate
the damage on ecosystems that are integral to the economic future of
Loreto.
The growth of tourism and resident populations in Loreto will increase
the number of fishermen plying the waters of the region. Increased
fishing effort will put additional pressure on fishing stocks that are
already displaying signs of overexploitation. The fishing model
elaborated as a part of this study estimates the impact on fishing
stocks of increasing numbers of fishermen. The model employs a fishing
search algorithm that estimates the risk of an individual fish being
caught that enters the waters of the region. Extrapolating from this
model, we can make inferences about the risk of overexploitation of
the fishery and losing the viability of resident fish stocks. We
consider here that when over 20% of the stock of a species is taken in
a season, the sustainability of the population is at risk. As seen in
Figure 23, the current level of fishing effort is already putting
resident communities of fish in jeopardy. The probability of a major
collapse in fish populations rises substantially with an increase in
visitors.
The dynamics of the model operate
differently for resident species versus migratory species. For the
resident fishing stocks such as grouper or sea bass, the activities of
local fishermen represent the main pressures on fishing stocks, and
the local fishing sector will also suffer the consequences of a
collapse in the fishery. For migratory species, the actions of
Loreto’s sport fishermen have an impact on the fishery throughout the
Gulf of California and are impacted by similar actions in other
regions of the gulf. Not only are the fish themselves at risk, but the
economic viability of the sportfishing and artisanal fishing sectors
are in danger. Increasing numbers of fishermen competing for the same
dwindling fishing stocks will destroy Loreto’s reputation as an
excellent launching point for sportfishing. This is true for both
resident and migratory species. Hundreds of fishermen vying to catch
each marlin that passes through the waters is much less attractive
than a few dozen fishermen on the water at any particular time. |
