Tulum Fishing Cooperative Seeks Funding to Modernize Its Facilities

Tulum, Quintana Roo — The Pescadores de Tulum cooperative is seeking funding to modernize and expand its infrastructure, aiming to strengthen the local fishing industry and preserve a livelihood for between 60 and 70 native families in the municipality.

José Martín Lucio Zunun, president of the organization, said the cooperative currently has 31 members, most of them Tulum natives, who remain committed to preserving fishing and protecting the marine resources their work depends on.

The cooperative gives priority to local residents while working to keep alive a traditional activity that provides income for numerous families in Tulum, he said.

“One of the projects we have is to build up the cooperative, because many native families in Tulum depend on it. Roughly 60 to 70 families depend basically on fishing,” Lucio Zunun said.

He said members work not only to sustain the productive activity but also to protect marine resources and to push back against private interests that, he asserted, want the cooperative to disappear. He did not provide further details.

“We try to take care of our resource and also to protect it from the interests of private parties who want the cooperative to be wiped out, but we try to keep moving forward,” he said.

Against that backdrop, the organization is working to secure a project that would allow it to improve its facilities and operate under better conditions.

The president said members hope to obtain support to overhaul the cooperative’s infrastructure and guarantee that its activities continue for the benefit of the families that depend on fishing.

He reiterated that, despite the difficulties, members intend to keep going and to preserve the activity as part of the livelihood and traditions of the Tulum community.