Challenges in the Assessment of the Artisanal Fishing Fleet from Santa Rosalia, B. C. S., Mexico: Catch Composition

Santa Rosalia is a small town located in the central part of the Baja California Peninsula, facing the Gulf of California. Its main economic activity is mining, local trade and artisanal fishing. The objective of this work is to characterize the catch composition of the artisanal fishing fleet in Santa Rosalia, B. C. S., Mexico. In the mid-90's, began a period of high abundance of jumbo squid (Dosidicus gigas) in the central Gulf of California, the artisanal fleet recorded catch volumes above 100,000 tons per year. Squid fishing is seasonal and fishermen traditionally alternated with other fisheries. Differences in catch volume between jumbo squid and other fishing resources made that efforts for stock assessment were focus on jumbo squid. Our Preliminary results show that besides jumbo squid about 70 items comprising different species of fish, sharks, rays and octopus are caught by the artisanal fishing fleet during the year, lacking of general information of most of them.