- In Chimbote, north of Lima in Peru, fishers have been working for years to protect the Peruvian grunt (Anisotremus scapularis), a fish species in high demand for its meat, along a 1.5-kilometer (almost 1-mile) stretch of coast.
- Illegal fishing methods such as explosives have become common in this area, and the authorities have failed to deter them.
- The fishers, who use traditional methods to catch the grunt from shore, keep watch for illegal activities in the area in hopes that the species will not disappear.
It’s 4 a.m., and a group of fishers in the city of Chimbote, 422 kilometers (262 miles) north of Lima, have arrived at the rocks of Campamento Atahualpa and Vesique beaches. This is the area they guard to protect the Peruvian grunt (Anisotremus scapularis), a fish highly valued for its meat. They have come to relieve their peers from night-watching duties. Faced with the threat of illegal fishing that has increased in recent decades, the fishers organized a system to protect the Peruvian grunt so they could continue fishing it as they’d done for years.
“This is where the grunt is protected in Chimbote, because we’re here day and night,” says Gabriel Vásquez, 59, who volunteers as part of the group of fishers leading the project to protect the grunt. “If we drop our guard for just a moment, the people who use explosives will come and make the fish disappear. We chose to base ourselves here because it’s the only shelter.”
In this area of Chimbote, fishing has been one of the main production activities for thousands of years. In 2022, the city was declared a Historic Capital of Fishing and Hydrobiological Resources. However, factors such as pollution and illegal activities have affected the marine ecosystem. For artisanal fishers and shellfish catchers dedicated to the protection of species like the Peruvian grunt in Chimbote, the work has not been easy.
A refuge against illegal fishing
The project to protect the Peruvian grunt spans around 1.5 km (just under 1 mile) along the coast. By fishing from the rocks, the fishers also guard the hillsides adjacent to the sea, so their presence acts as a deterrent to illegal fishers coming in from land or sea. When they encounter illegal activity, they document it with photos and videos, gathering evidence to turn over to the authorities for investigation. Their objective is to protect the grunt and make the artisanal fishing they learned from earlier generations sustainable, so they can provide for their families and the local market.
“The Peruvian grunt has high commercial value, but its coastal location makes it a vulnerable species,” says Juan Carlos Sueiro, director of fisheries with the NGO Oceana and former consultant for the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Traditional fishers catch this fish, which frequents rocky and sandy areas, throughout the year, except during the short spawning season.
“We fish with a line or cord, we respect the closed season for the grunt and we take care [of it]. That’s why the fish remain in this area. We’ve been working here for years. When [illegal fishers] came to threaten us and threw dynamite into the sea, we wondered what we could do to keep ourselves safe, take care of the species and keep on fishing,” Vásquez says.
Since then, some 30 years ago, Vásquez and around 40 other fishers have taken turns to protect this stretch of Chimbote’s coast, according to their fishing schedules. “Our dream is to create a protected working area that is recognized by the authorities. As fishermen, our livelihoods depend on our work and on the species,” he says.
The use of explosives and nets operated by divers are prohibited methods according to the Peruvian General Fishing Law and the resolution that details the use of nets in shallower rocky areas. However, according to Sueiro, “blast fishing is an outdated practice that remains in areas where there is no urban development nearby. [Illegal fishers] choose places where villages are small or relatively far away, or where there are cliffs, which allows for some impunity.”
Percy Grandez, a legal specialist in marine governance with the Peruvian Society of Environmental Law (SPDA), says fishing with explosives is extremely harmful to marine ecosystems because the large dynamite blasts affect not only the target species but other species as well. Additionally, Sueiro says, the method kills eggs and larvae, damages the internal organs of fish and harms the seabed and other natural surroundings.
A 2015 report by the Peruvian Sea Institute revealed the effects of illegal activity on species such as the Peruvian grunt. Long gone are the times when the species was abundant enough that Vásquez and other fishers participated in grunt-catching competitions on the coast of Chimbote. “Now, there is a lot of exploitation, and we can no longer do these activities, which encouraged tourism. People lack respect, they fish with nets and explosives and we have to fight against that,” Vásquez says.
His group’s efforts have driven away illegal fishers and prevented the disappearance of this fish from this part of Chimbote.
Defending a threatened species
Since 2018, the illegal methods of blast fishing and nets operated by divers have become the Chimbote fisher group’s main enemies. The looting of these waters comes with firearm threats that instill fear in the fishers who protect the place.
“These illegal fishers wait for those protecting the area to go home and then enter with the explosives,” says Almensor Gómez, 63, the president of the Association of Traditional Fishermen of San Pedrito, who was one of the first guardians of the Peruvian grunt in this area. Gómez recalls that they bought slingshots and collected stones because they did not know how to defend themselves against illegal fishers.
Illegal fishing also causes changes in the marine ecosystem due to the overexploitation of resources. Unlike the 8 kilograms (17 pounds) that the fishers protecting the area can catch daily, the illegal fishers catch up to 500 kg (1,102 lbs), according to experts. The impact therefore extends from the ecosystem to the local fishers, who face more challenges in grunt fishing than they did decades ago.
Gómez says their requests to the authorities still do not have concrete answers. “There is no support for us guardians. We care for the species, and we’re trying to find out how to get the area recognized as a sanctuary. Maybe it could become a regional protected area, but that would require scientific studies, and it’s expensive for biologists to come and analyze the area so that it can be agreed on,” he says.
Official recognition of the fishery’s management would allow monitoring of the grunt and other species, and the creation of a dedicated fishing area. “The area could even become a tourist corridor, so that people could visit while we continue to take care of the grunt,” Vásquez says.
Waiting for institutional support
Despite fishers submitting video evidence of illegal fishing and requesting the support of the Port Authority, they haven’t received a response. Neither has there been a concrete reply to repeated requests to the local authorities in Chimbote. Changes in municipal and regional governments have halted any coordination with the fishers. In April 2022, the then-minister of production, Jorge Luis Prado, announced the creation of a “table of solutions” to address the problems in Chimbote and reactivate the economy through traditional fishing, but the fishers say they have seen no changes since.
The crime of illegal extraction of aquatic species is punishable by up to five years in prison, but the penalty increases to seven years if explosives are used, according to Grandez of the SPDA.
It is difficult for the authorities to be present when the crime is committed, so Grandez highlights the fishers’ work to create a photo and video record that can become evidence before the Special Attorney for Environmental Matters (FEMA). “There aren’t many sanctions because there aren’t many substantiated complaints, and the authorities won’t impose penalties if there is no evidence,” he says.
However, for Oceana’s Sueiro, the task is complicated. “We would have to work with the DICAPI [General Directorate of Captaincies and Coast Guards] and the police to prosecute and identify the criminal structure, which is a much bigger operation than just looking for people using explosives in the water,” he says.
Mongabay contacted the Ministry of Production and the DICAPI for a response, but neither responded by the time the original version of this article was published by Mongabay Latam.
Banner image: Fishing boats in Chimbote, Peru, in 2016. Image by Josué Del Aguila via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0).
This story was first published in Spanish here on Aug. 5, 2024.
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