BY FERNANDO RODRIGUEZ

Sportfishing in Los Cabos is an activity that takes place throughout the year and Cabo San Lucas, Los Barriles, and La Paz register a constant flow of fishing enthusiasts. This pastime has reached a near-perilous peak. Brenda Olmos, Coordinator of Management and Inspection of Sport Fishing Species, announced that the current problem is not fishing without licenses, but excessive fishing.

“Right now, it is very easy to obtain a fishing license, so I don’t think that is the biggest problem, of going fishing without a license; I think the biggest problem is overfishing. For me, the problem is not that they do not respect the legalities of obtaining their license. It is that they do not respect the ecosystem, that they do not respect what it feeds us and it is not because it is a fish fillet. It is because it is consumed in restaurants and what feeds us is sport tourism,” said Brenda.

According to Martín Inzuza Tamayo, Technical Director of the Fund for the Protection of Marine Resources (FONMAR), in March almost 6 million USD were collected for sport fishing permits, which has created a surplus of 1.11million, something that had never happened in the history of the trust.

For its part, the Coordinator for the Management and Inspection of Sport Fishing Species has mentioned that during the operations, the inspection of sport fishing vessels exceeded 300 boats. “Fishing is the number one activity in the municipality. Here there is an economic benefit. We notice that the activity is huge and also how many fishes are caught,” said the coordinator.

Olmos announced she has begun to focus on educating children in the municipality of Los Cabos in terms of the care and preservation of marine species and hopes our young will maintain the integrity of fishing and save the oceans that feed and fuel this economy. 

The preservation of the fish and waters have transformed this once sleepy village into the sportfishing capital of the world with the Bisbee tournaments in October and the charters and tours that take place in abundance every single day. Preserving the livelihood of this town begins first with awareness and is then followed by action. What action our government leaders take in the future is certain to displease the few while preserving what is right and proper and legal for the many because there are literally hundreds of charter and tour companies with employees and families that need sportfishing to survive.