Response to letter to President Nieto Regarding the Vaquita

The following is a response to my letter addressed to the President of Mexico, Mr. Enrique Pena Nieto, in which I asked for the Mexican government to use alternative fishing tools for the artisan netting fishing overlapping the distribution of the Vaquita.

Mazatlán, Sinaloa, May 21th 2013.

HELENE MARSH
I refer to your attentive letter unnumbered, dated on March 4 of the current year, recently received in this General Administrative Office of Management of Aquaculture and Fisheries, by which you requests us to report on the extent of the area where the alternative fishing net designed by the National Fisheries Institute will be mandatory for the shrimp fishery, as well as the date on which regulation come into force.
In this regard, I comment you that the public consultation period for the Amendment to the Mexican Official Standard NOM-002-PESC 1993 ended on April 23rd. This NOM regulates the shrimp fishery, and considers the implementation of this alternative fishing gear, without limiting the possibilities to allow other gear whose efficiency and selectivity would to be previously evaluated by the National Fisheries Institute.
Note that during in the public consultation period, 716 comments were received, all questioning the use of the prototype fishing gear and only one proposal to amend the Official Standard to authorize the use of the alternative fishing net in another region of the country. In the near future we will have to decide whether is it advisable to implement the use of such active fishing gear for the shrimp fishery in the Upper Gulf of California and Colorado River Delta Biosphere Reserve, except in the vaquita refuge zone where fishing activities are not allowed
The results of the consultation will be made known to the public through the publication of regulatory instrument in the Official Gazette of the Federation, which we hope to do in next July and will to go into effect 60 days after its publication.
With no further ado, I take the chance to send you my warm regards,

Atte:

Aldo Gerardo Padilla Pestano,
General Director and Coordinator of the Subcommittee for Responsible Fishing.