Territorial-use rights for finfish fisheries: A case study in El Corredor, Baja California Sur, MX

Abstract

Small-scale fisheries support millions of people around the world but they face a common issue of overcapacity and, subsequently, an overexploitation of resources. One solution to this is through the implementation of territorial-use rights in fisheries (TURFs) where specific areas are designated for fishing by specific individuals or groups while excluding all others. In El Corredor, Baja California Sur, small-scale fishers target a variety of reef fishes under a permit system managed by cooperatives using hook-and-line, of which the Pacific red snapper (Lutjanus peru) is the most important species economically and socially. After concerns arose about possible overexploitation of fishery resources, in part due to competition with industrial fishers, fishers in El Corredor became interested in establishing TURFs over their fishing grounds. Using a spatial bioeconomic model called TURFtools, we explored the possible impacts of establishing TURFs in El Corredor to provide fishers with the knowledge necessary to make informed management decisions for their fisheries. Of the five scenarios tested, we found combining TURFs with no-take reserves—whether maintained at their current size or expanded—had the highest increase in fish abundance, fisher harvest, and fisher profit in comparison to the status quo after 20 years. TURFs may be beneficial to El Corredor fishers in addressing overcapacity issues within their fisheries given they can collaborate on how best to manage these TURFs. Though the use of TURFs to manage small-scale finfish fisheries needs to be further explored, this study is the first step in exploring their efficacy.