Playa del Carmen fishing season ends with 50% lower catch

Playa del Carmen, Mexico — Fishermen affiliated with the Xaman-Ha Fishing Cooperative concluded the scale fish capture season with a 50% reduction in volume compared to last year’s marine species catch.

José Gómez Burgos, president of the mentioned guild organization that brings together about 50 workers, reported that weather storms, combined with low demand for the fishery products they captured, hindered the achievement of a better fishing season.

“It wasn’t such a good season, let’s say, due to various factors that came to spoil it, like the storms that forced the port to close, but more than anything because there wasn’t as much demand for our products among local consumers, so many times it remained for our own consumption,” explained Gómez Burgos.

In this way, they only managed to capture around 50 tons of marine products of various species, but mainly coronado, snapper, grouper, red snapper, mackerel, and tuna.

Last year they achieved around 100 tons, according to Gómez Burgos, which allowed them to commercialize these species with food processors in Puerto Progreso, Yucatán.

The capture period began on September 15 and concluded on December 15, practically lasting the entire autumn season, when currents change direction and there is the possibility of capturing larger species.

Gómez Burgos recalled that they do not have formal permits to execute large-scale capture, since in front of Playa del Carmen there is the Mexican Caribbean Biosphere Reserve. Therefore, they fish using artisanal methods that have been passed down through generations and in smaller vessels.

These same vessels are the ones they use to provide tourist services, so with the conclusion of the fishing season, they stored their capture utensils and will focus on the last days of the high season to meet their commitments with the holiday period.