Small-Scale Fisheries and Operational Units at the Central-West Coast of the Gulf of California, Mexico

Small-scale fisheries are characterized by the multiplicity of fishing systems that can differentially use in space and time to catch target species; this generates scenarios of behavior of operational units or fleets. This paper considers the importance of defining these units in order to contribute for better planning and development of regional fisheries. To this end, the dynamics of fishing fleets operating in the western-central coast of the Gulf of California was analyzed. The data comes from trip tickets (1998-2010) and from surveys designed to assess local knowledge of fishers. The analysis includes the determination of target species and its relationship with fishing systems, including the behavior of variables associated with the temporal and spatial availability of resources. We identified more than 68 species of interest for the development of regional fisheries; ten of them determine the behavior of fishers, but only six operational units were identified: giant squid, mackerel, octopus, mackerel, shark and grouper-snapper. We argued on production cycles and possible interactions of operational units.