Guatemalan fishing council Industria Pesquera y Camaronera de Guatemala (Indupecasa) and the Center for Development and Sustainable Fisheries (CeDePesca) have collaborated to relaunch a fishery improvement project (FIP) for the Pacific mahi and yellowfin tuna fishery operating within Guatemalan waters.
The Guatemalan mahi (Coryphaena hippurus) fishery, which has been in place for 20 years and mainly features small-scale boats, is an important source of work along the country’s Pacific coast – particularly in Escuintla, one of Guatemala’s major fishing districts.
A fast-growing predator that lives up to four years, and can reach a length of 2 meters, mahi is a highly migratory pelagic species inhabiting highly oxygenated waters in tropical and subtropical parts of the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian oceans, according to CeDePesca. The U.S. market is a main importer of mahi products.
Though most mahi fisheries are seasonal, the fish are permanently present in Guatemalan waters due to particular oceanographic conditions. However, events such as El Niño can affect mahi’s usual distribution.
The related FIP for the fishery initially launched in 2013 but came to a halt in 2016, as did the entire fishery for a short time, according to Sara Pérez, CeDePesca’s project coordinator for the improvement of the Guatemalan mahi and tuna fishery.
“Mahi fishing on our coasts was scarce; there was a significant drop, and so there was no continuity. After those losses, it took the Guatemalan partners a while to reactivate the fishery,” Pérez told SeafoodSource. “Mahi fishing in Guatemala resumed toward the end of 2017, and now, a partner has gotten interested and contacted [CeDePesca] to start the FIP with their partner in Guatemala.”
It is no surprise that CeDePesca was the group contacted – it has direct experience relaunching FIPs and the center was involved with a similar project in Panama last year.
The Guatemalan FIP, meanwhile, relaunched in June 2023 with new partners, and incorporates yellowfin tuna together with mahi. Indupecasa is functioning as the local entity for the project, working in conjunction with U.S. importers and wholesalers including Red Chamber Co., Tampa Bay Fisheries, Aqua Star, Neptune Foods, Tequesta Bay, and Meridian Products.
The project is a prospective FIP, meaning there is an intention to meet the requirements for active FIP status within one year. According to FisheryProgress, prospective FIPs do not yet demonstrate progress toward sustainability.
During the development stage, CeDePesca will conduct a Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) pre-assessment, provide improvement recommendations, and develop a plan to address key issues. Currently, the prospective FIP profile is available on FisheryProgress.org.
The major problems the project is trying to tackle include insufficient catch data for the small-scale fleet, poor systematic information about ecosystem interactions, a lack of management plans for the fishery such as harvest rules, and little international coordination that considers proper scientific guidance.
Current improvement recommendations include collecting dependent and independent fisheries data to contribute to effective regional stock assessments; evaluating the risks to bycatch species through a systematic collection of interaction information; approving a participatory, effective management framework; and participating in international efforts to coordinate proper management for this stock, which should consider relevant scientific guidance.
In the Guatemalan mahi fishery, small fishing vessels – those with net registry tonnage (NRT) of 2 tons or less – on average use pelagic, manually operated longlines with a maximum of 1,000 hooks. Up to 15 years ago, a medium-scale fleet composed of boats between 2 and 30 NRT began operations, using mechanized longlines with a maximum of 2,000 hooks. This fleet has decreased from a peak of 27 boats to a current count of 11. Mahi used to be a targeted species, but it has since targeted sharks and mahi have become bycatch for the fleet.
The average length of the mahi caught in Guatemala is 101.1 centimeters; very few are shorter than 69.9 centimeters, which is the estimated average length at first maturity.
Yellowfin tuna, meanwhile, is an open-water pelagic and oceanic species that feeds on fish, crustaceans, and squids. Being sensitive to low concentrations of oxygen, it rarely dives below 250 meters in the tropics and is common in waters between the temperatures of 18 and 31 degrees Centigrade.
Conservation measures imposed in 2004 for the Eastern Pacific are likely to maintain the stock at about the average maximum sustainable yield level, slightly higher than would otherwise be the case.
The InterAmerican Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) and Mexico, which has one of the largest fisheries for this species, have proposed three-month closures to maintain healthy stock levels, but threats such as deep-sea mining could also threaten the species.
Photo courtesy of SiestaImage/Shutterstock
