EXCLUSIVE FISHING ZONE AS A STRATEGY FOR MANAGING FISHERY RESOURCES BY THE SERI INDIANS, GULF OF CALIFORNIA, MEXICO by Luis Bourillón-Moreno ________________________ Copyright© Luis Bourillón-Moreno 2002 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the SCHOOL OF RENEWABLE NATURAL RESOURCES In Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY WITH A MAJOR IN RENEWABLE NATURAL RESOURCES STUDIES In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2 0 0 2 c 2 c 3 c 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Several people and institutions have contributed to the completion of my dissertation. First my thesis committee chaired by Dr. William Shaw, and formed by Dr. William Halvorson, Dr. William Matter, Dr. Tom McGuire, and Dr. Emily Young for their helpful revisions, support and patience to review the final document. I am indebted to my friends Dr. Sarah Mesnick, Dr. Donald Thomson, Dr. Luis Tarango, Dr. Joaquín Murrieta, Dr. J. Nichols, Dr. Jeff Seminoff, and Dr. Edna Saynes, for their support and example. Grants from the Fulbright-García Robles program, the Inter-American Foundation, the Graduate College of the University of Arizona, and the Wallace Research Foundation, provided financial support for my graduate studies. Field research was funded by grants from Fondo Mexicano para la Conservación de la Naturaleza, A.C., World Wildlife Fund, Conservation International, and Conservación del Territorio Insular, A.C. Comunidad y Biodiversidad, A.C., provided enormous support by allowing me a flexible schedule and use of their facilities to write this dissertation while acting as their Executive Director. Numerous friends and volunteers provided help in fieldwork: Jorge Torre gave me his continued support, friendship and took the challenge to work in Seri territory as well. Thanks Jorge for your endless source of good black humor. Xavier Basurto, Amy Hudson Weaver, and Richard Cudney shared with me the commitment to work for community-based fisheries management. Thanks also to Rocío Cobarrubias, Raven Skydancer, Kyle Gunza, Gabe Wortman, Gisela Carballo, José Luis López, Jacqueline García, Zak Ryerbach, Justin Olenek, Xavier Zacarías, Jeniffer Peltis, Altagracia Landa for their help in field sampling, and Julia Jiménez for entering most of the sampling data in the computer. I especially want to thank Dr. Jaqueline García for her support in statistical analysis and the use of statistical software. Tad Pfister and Lorayne Meltzer from Prescott College also provided logistic support for fieldwork in Bahía Kino. Tad introduced me to several Seri families in Punta Chueca in 1992. Francisco Navarro offered continued support and inspiration. Shoko Doode and Blanca Rebeca Noriega, helped me with discussions about the anthropology of fishing in Seri territory. I especially want to thank members of the Seri community of Punta Chueca for sharing time and knowledge with me: the late Pedro Romero, the late Genaro Herrera, Antonio Robles and Carlota Colosio, Alfredo López, Ernesto Molina, Manuelito Flores, José Luis Blanco, Juan José Moreno, Francisco Barnett, Nacho Barnett, Moisés Méndez, Lidia Ibarra and sons, Josefina Ibarra, Trinidad Ibarra, Nachito Montaño, René Montaño, David Morales Astorga, Israel Robles, Cornelio Robles, Agustín Ibarra, Luis Miguel López, José Luis López, Gabriel Hoeffer, Héctor Perales, and to Carmelita Díaz for giving my Seri nickname “Conen.” They helped me to understand a little about their vision of the natural world, their problems, contradictions, and their way of seen life and its connection with the ocean. Above all, I want to thank Marisol for her infinite love and patience to endure a stay in Bahía Kino, and several years in Tucson, and to my daughter Isabella that provided me with motivation to live and be a better human each day. To my parents, Luis and Blanca, for a life of support and stability that allowed me to pursue my dreams. I want also to dedicate this work also to my sisters and their own families: I love you all. c 5 Arponeros de caguama, grabado de A. Mexiac en el Museo Nacional de Antropología, 1963. Tomado de Margarita Nolasco Armas. 1968. Seris, Yaquis y Tarahumaras. INAH. Artist representation of Seri spearing of caguama (sea turtle) at night, possibly inside the Infiernillo Channel with Tiburón Island off in the distance, the hearth of the Seri marine territory. Para Marisol e Isabella; Gracias por darme el tiempo para terminar, ahora hay que recuperarlo! Las adoro.... Guaymas, Sonora, 13 de Abril de 2002. c 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ………………………………………………………… 12 LIST OF TABLES …………………………………………………………. 14 ABSTRACT ……………………………………………………………….. 15 CHAPTER 1 THE SERI PEOPLE AND THEIR USE OF MARINE NATURAL RESOURCES ………………………………… 17 A. SERI TERRITORY …………………………………………….. 17 Historical Occupation of the Coastal Region ………………. 17 Present extension of the Seri territory ……………………… 21 B. SERI SOCIO-CULTURAL SETTING AND USE OF MARINE NATURAL RESOURCES ………………………… 23 The Use of Marine Natural Resources by the Seri …………. 23 Past Relationships of Seri with Neighbouring Communities 1600-1930 ………………………………………………….. 25 1. Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries …………... 27 2. Nineteenth Century ………………………………. 29 3. Twentieth Century, until 1930s ………………….. 30 Modern Developments from 1940s to 2000 ……………….. 35 1. Developments from 1940s to 1960s …………….. 35 2. Developments from the 1970s to 2000 ………….. 51 C. SERI SOCIAL ORGANIZATION AND CHANGES PROMPTED BY EXTERNAL ORGANIZATION STRUCTURES ……………………………………………….. 61 Historical Accounts on Seri Social Organizations …………. 61 Changes in Social Organization caused by external institutional structures, from 1940s to 1990s …………………………… 62 1. Seri Fishing Cooperative ……………………….. 63 2. Ejido of Desemboque and Punta Chueca ………. 63 3. Tiburón Island Comunal Property ……………… 64 4. The Council of the Elders ……………………… 64 c 7 TABLE OF CONTENTS - Continued CHAPTER 2 OVERVIEW OF THE CONSERVATION PROBLEM, OBJECTIVES AND STUDY AREA ………………….. 66 A. MARINE TENURE AND PROPERTY RIGHTS IN FISHERIES MANAGEMENT …………………………………………… 66 Influence of the Tragedy of the Commons Model ………... 66 Common Property and Natural Resources ….…………….. 70 Territorial Use Rights in Fisheries (TURFs).……………… 73 B. FOLK MANAGEMENT AND CO-MANAGEMENT OF FISHERIES ………………………………………………. 76 C. FISHERIES MANAGEMENT IN MEXICO ……………… 78 The bias towards large-scale fisheries ……………………. 79 Centralized Bureaucracy and Influence of the Private Sector in Fisheries Management ………………………….. 80 Mexican Fishing Law: Administration through Entry Controls 82 Social organization of Fishing …………………………….. 83 D. THE SERI EXCLUSIVE FISHING ZONE ………………… 86 Rights Granted to Seri fishermen.…………………………. 86 Intrinsic limitations of the Seri EFZ ………………………. 87 E. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY ……………………………. 89 F. STUDY AREA ………………………………………………… 91 Infiernillo Channel …………………………………………. 91 Biological Characteristics ………………………………….. 91 CHAPTER 3 THE EFFECTS OF THE SERI EXCLUSIVE FISHING ZONE ON FISHERIES MANAGEMENT………….... 94 A. INTRODUCTION …………………………………………….. 94 B. OBJECTIVES …………………………………………………. 95 C. METHODS ……….……………………………………………. 96 Ethnographic work …………………………………………. 96 Review of legal documents ………………………………… 99 History of conflicts over the Seri EFZ ……………………… 99 c 8 TABLE OF CONTENTS - Continued D. RESULTS ………………………………………………………. 100 Fisheries Resource Use Patterns in the Region………………. 100 Interpretation of the limits of the Seri EFZ …………………. 100 Recent Conflicts over Marine Resources between Seris and Mexican Fishermen …………………………………..… 105 Conflict One: the “El Perro” conflict………………… 105 Description of the conflict ………………….. 105 Outcomes and Perceptions …………………. 109 Role of governments ………………………… 111 Conflict Two: the “shrimp tax conflict” ……………… 112 Description of the conflict ………………….. 112 Outcomes and Perceptions …………………. 114 Role of governments ………………………… 116 Conflict Three: the “Bahía Kino reserve” conflict…… 119 Description of the conflict ………………….. 119 Outcomes and Perceptions …………………. 122 Role of governments ………………………… 122 Conflict Four: the “sierra” conflict…………………… 123 Description of the conflict ………………….. 123 Outcomes and Perceptions …………………. 125 Role of governments ………………………… 126 E) DISCUSSION …………………………………………………… 127 The limits of the Seri EFZ in the light of resource use patterns …………………………………………………. 127 Interpretation of the limits of the Seri EFZ ………………… 131 Conflicts over Competition for Marine Resources and their Outcomes …………………………………………………… 132 F) CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS …………… 146 CHAPTER 4 THE JAIBA FISHERY INSIDE THE SERI EFZ: COMMON PROPERTY REGIME AND ROLE OF TRADITIONAL ECOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE IN ITS MANAGEMENT ………………………………….. 150 A. INTRODUCTION …………………………………………….. 150 Traditional knowledge of small-scale fishermen and Management ……………………………………………….. 151 Seri Traditional Ecological Knowledge ……………………. 152 c 9 TABLE OF CONTENTS - Continued B. OBJECTIVES …………………………………………………. 153 C. METHODS ………….…………………………………………. 154 Biological Aspects of the jaiba Fishery ……………………. 154 (1) Monitoring of the commercial catch ……………. 154 (2) Computerized mapping of jaiba fishing areas ….. 157 Analysis of jaiba as a Resource under a Common Property Regime ……………………………………………………… 158 Traditional Ecological Knowledge of jaiba ………………… 159 D. RESULTS ………………………………………………………. 160 The jaiba fishery in Seri waters …………………………… 160 (1) History of the fishery …………………………… 160 (2) Fishing methods ................................................. 160 (3) Fishing areas ……………………………………. 162 (4) Historical trends in the catch ……………………. 163 (5) Descriptive statistics