Shrimp fishing, the glow of blue gold that fades

Erase the grey colours from your mind and replace them with the ones you like the most. It is the best way to start each day with brightness and lots of spirit.

With great excitement, the inhabitants of the fishing camps of our region awaited the arrival of August 20th of each year. It marked the end of the ban on shrimp fishing in bays and estuaries. It was the beginning of the harvest. Times of prosperity.

Shrimp were abundant. Every “tide” meant returning to land with the canoe “falqueando” full. The crustacean was caught with “lomeras” cast nets. It was hard work, but clean and productive.

Things have changed since the 1960s. Before, the wild shrimp season was from August 20th to the end of April. Little by little, it has been extended until the following month, and today, until October 2nd.

The situation is looking bad for coastal fishermen. On the one hand, it is said that the shrimp are not large enough or heavy enough to be marketed, and on the other, because the ban was lifted late, they migrate to deeper waters.

It must also be considered that poaching reduces production, as do the systems applied with the new trawling gear that are predatory, killing millions of fish, crabs, and all types of marine fauna.

For every kilogram of shrimp caught by a cast net or “Chango”, it destroys four kilograms of accompanying fauna. Just imagine how many tons a day between pangas and boats!

Add to this the pollution left by fishermen both in bays and on the high seas, as all the waste they produce ends up on the seabed.

For all these reasons, the shrimp season that is about to begin will be pitiful, a blue-gold glow that fades in three days. Before it was an illusion, now it is… a disappointment… What a hard blow!

He has more than 30 years of experience in journalism, working as a reporter for crime, agricultural and political news. He was the founding director of the newspaper EL DEBATE in Guamúchil from 1980 to 1985 and director of the newspaper EL DEBATE in Culiacán from 1985 to 2010. He has also worked as a radio announcer and has taken part in various seminars in the areas of economic and administrative knowledge. He has been a member of the Mexican Red Cross and a former member of the young leaders’ clubs and the Rotary Club of Culiacán Oriente. Today, in addition to writing the column Historias y aventuras, he is dedicated to researching commercial and sport fishing activities on the coasts and banks of Sinaloa.

See more