Chile LOBSTER FISHING Tsunami Recovery The tsunami that hit the Juan Fernández islands of Chile has tested the resilience of the traditional tenure system of the fi shing community of the area ome time in October 1704, the spreading over approximately 230 16-gun buccaneer galleon Cinque miles in the east-west direction. SPorts reached the uninhabited The rough landscape of the islands, Más a Tierra Island, about 415 miles of imposing beauty, consists of off central Chile, for restocking food a mosaic of volcanic rock ridges and fresh water. There, sailing master and densely vegetated ravines, Alexander Selkirk got into an argument harbouring a rich endemic with Captain Thomas Stradling about flora. The islands were designated by the seaworthiness of the vessel. Selkirk, Chile as a National Park in 1935, and an ill-tempered Scot, was left on the by the United Nations Educational island with a musket, gunpowder, Scientific and Cultural Organization carpenter’s tools, a knife, a Bible, some (UNESCO) as a World Biosphere 28 clothing and rope. He was rescued Reserve in 1977, making them part of four years and four months later; his humanity’s natural heritage. San Juan story inspired Daniel Defoe’s fictional Bautista (population approximately 770), the only permanent settlement, is located on Cumberland Bay, facing northwards on the north coast of ... the plentiful lobster stocks became the backbone of Robinson Island. the economy of the island, or, more precisely, of the Juan Most fishing activity takes place around Robinson Crusoe and Santa Fernández archipelago. Clara islands. Eight to ten boats operate in Selkirk, where fishers stay with their families between late September and mid-May, while a few fishermen operate character Robinson Crusoe. During his sporadically in the Desventuradas. long period of isolation, Selkirk learned The basic design of the 8-11-m double- to make use of whatever resources ended fishing boats has been virtually were available to him—digging for unchanged since at least 1915 and may roots, hunting feral goats and boiling be traced to whaling during the 19th lobsters. century. Most were built in Robinson Two centuries later, the plentiful Crusoe Island with local woods and lobster stocks became the backbone are powered by 15-hp outboard motors. of the economy of the island, or, Traps are made of wood, and baited more precisely, of the Juan Fernández with a mix of white fish and moraine archipelago. Más a Tierra and Más eel meat. This article is by Billy Ernst (biernst@ Afuera (located 100 miles further udec.cl), Departamento de Oceanografía, offshore) were renamed as Robinson Modern fi shery Universidad de Concepción. Concepción, Crusoe and Alexander Selkirk Islands, Commercial fishing dates to the 19th Chile, Julio Chamorro (juliochamorro. [email protected]) and Pablo Manríquez honouring, respectively, the fictional century. The modern fishery took ([email protected]), Sindicato character and his real-life counterpart. shape after a French company started de Trabajadores Independientes Pescadores The islands correspond to the peaks of to operate in 1914, largely as a result Artesanales, Juan Fernández, Chile, and two members of an impressive chain of the introduction of motors. Before J M (Lobo) Orensanz (lobo@u. of sea mounts that rises from abyssal 1959, fishermen were employed by washington.edu), Centro Nacional Patagónico, Puerto Madryn, Argentina depths in the southeastern Pacific, the fishing companies (apatronados). SAMUDRA REPORT NO. 57 LOBSTER FISHING The last apatronados subsisted with the aim of increasing and through approximately 1970; since stabilizing prices by entering European then, all fishermen have worked markets directly. independently. Nominally, the fishery has The first two vessels built been managed by a centralized to be owned by independent administration of regulations that fishers were significantly named cover legal size, a closed season and the Libertad and Independencia. release of egg-carrying females. Yet, A co-operative was created in 1964, as Antonie de Saint-Exupery wrote in with a membership that included The Little Prince, “the essential is about 90 per cent of the fishers, but it invisible to the eye”: an effective foundered eight years later and was but unwritten sea-tenure system, formally terminated in 1980, as a result established by tradition, has put a cap of administrative mismanagement on the size of the fishing force, and and a political climate unfriendly regulated access for decades, even in to co-operatives. As Chile returned the absence of a formal limited-entry to democracy, fishermen organized regime or other access controls. themselves into ‘syndicates’, but Each fisherman or fisherman’s remained economically dependent family member may ‘own’ a certain BILLY ERNST AND J.M. (LOBO) ORENSANZ 29 Archipelago of Juan Fernández islands, off central Chile. Lobster stocks are the backbone of the economy of these islands on middlemen who provide cash number of fishing spots, known advances and an assortment of as marcas, where lobster traps are supplies before the start of the fishing deployed, one per spot. Most of those season. In 1999, a group of fishermen spots have been discovered and started a small private venture with claimed over decades, although new support from a government agency ones are still being identified with and non-governmental organizations the help of technological aids like (NGOs), with the purpose of facilitating echo sounders. Marcas are identified marketing and circumventing by alignments of land features; each intermediaries. In recent years, the fisherman knows by heart the location main syndicate started its own of his marcas, and of those belonging marketing of lobsters through exports, to others. Use and transfer of rights NOVEMBER 2010 CHILE over marcas are regulated by informal, from the bottom up. A collaborative but well-established, internal rules. effort between the syndicate and Marcas are not sold but can be independent scientists, taking transferred with a boat if the latter is advantage of technical skills available sold; they can be inherited by family within the fishing community and members, and are often lent to other with the support of conservation- users under a variety of arrangements. oriented NGOs, led to the design and In the event of a fisherman being implementation of a cost-effective unable to harvest in his marcas, others logbook sampling programme. The are expected to do so, but the marcas indicators monitored, together with return to the ‘owner’ once he goes back the empowerment of the fishermen’s to fishing. This complex and highly organization, gained through structured traditional tenure system implementation of the process, are enjoys high compliance. expected to lead to management As part of a project initiated by the strategies based on simple decision Juan Fernández syndicate, we mapped rules. the location of all marcas around the Early in the morning of 27 February islands with global positioning systems 2010, the orderly and almost idyllic (GPS), and recorded their ‘owners’. The life of Robinson Crusoe Island and its total number of marcas identified near fishing community came to an end. the Robinson Crusoe and Santa Clara A train of three tsunami waves, 12-15 Islands was 3,762. m high, hit Cumberland Bay. The While the marcas’ tenure system exposed sectors of San Juan Bautista has been completely ignored by the were devastated. Flooding progressed administration until very recently, horizontally over approximately 300 30 scientific input to agency managers m, reaching a maximum height of has consisted of discontinuous stock 20 m. The tsunami led to 16 fatal assessments projects and equilibrium casualties, nearly 50 families were models leading to total allowable catch affected, and serious damage to the (TAC) recommendations. Introduction infrastructure of the community of a TAC, however, would require the occurred: the municipal hall, the post transition from an informal but tightly office, the coast guard detachment, a structured territorial tenure system to gymnasium, the parks service office, some form of quota allocation, likely to the cemetery, churches, sport clubs, be socially disruptive. the museum and library, the geriatric Seeing the need for improved home and communications equipment advice, the Juan Fernández syndicate were completely destroyed. It was acted to develop its own indicators of almost miraculous that the tsunami did not hit the temporary fishing village of Selkirk Island, 100 miles westward. The waves passed south of the island. Had the tsunami struck the island, ....the Juan Fernández syndicate acted to develop its own the consequences might have been indicators of stock status and fi shery performance. devastating, as the houses there are built near the beach, at the foot of a deep gorge. An assessment of damage to the fishing infrastructure and fleet in the stock status and fishery performance. aftermath of the disaster revealed that Fishermen perceive stock abundance the two fishing coves (in the north and through catch per trap haul or per south) had been damaged. Sheds and fishing trip, so some form of catch per winches used to beach the boats were unit effort (CPUE) would be a natural totally destroyed. The facilities of the indicator, one which fishermen can fishers’ association, built with great monitor themselves, and understand. effort and pride, were completely wiped Monitoring and analysis require a out. Gone were the office building, format for the provision of scientific the showroom for display of marine or technical advice that operates products, and the 50 lockers where SAMUDRA REPORT NO. 57 LOBSTER FISHING The Honour of Marcas Julio Chamorro, a member of the Juan Fernández syndicate and the son of a local island boatbuilder, responded via email to questions put by Ramya Rajagopalan of ICSF, and translated by Billy Ernst: Could you tell us something about the origins of the marcas system? Marcas were established during the onset of the lobster fi shery in Juan Fernández archipelago around 1893.