Social-Ecological System of La Parguera Fish consumption and demand: Puerto Rico has maintained, over the years, a steady demand for fish. The history of that demand and process has been extensively documented (see Griffith et al. 2013 for a summary). Salted fish dominated until the first half of the 20th century, when frozen fish started to dominate the market. Puerto Rico imports more than 75% of the fish it consumes, and fresh fish and shellfish are only a fraction of that amount (we suspect that the amount is higher, reaching the 90-95% mark). However, fresh fish and shellfish play a critical role in the local gastronomy and restaurant businesses. Restaurants use fresh fish as chum to attract customers to whom they sell and serve a mixed fare of frozen (imported) and (to a minor extent) fresh fish. Restaurateurs use the local fare (lobsters, conch, snappers, groupers, hogfish, and trunkfish, among others), to show and tell customers about their supply, and to sell the fresh fish to those who order it whole. Frozen fish—of great quality—is served in other dishes in which the local side dishes and the sauces are perhaps of more importance. Both, fishers and restaurant owners make an effort to offer and to buy the fresh local catch. The market controls over the effort and products captured is an area of research and regulations that has not been investigated at all in the local fisheries, but could provide much insight into the current uses of the marine resources. Another dimension of fish consumption that has not been studied is the role of those other fishes that are seldom consumed at restaurants but that are important in the gastronomy (and nourishment) of the coastal households. Fishers distribute their catch among friends and relatives for their consumption. An unspecified amount of fishers, without license and oscillating (in terms of behavior) between “commercial” and “recreational,” fish for their subsistence, to add more food to their plates. In difficult economic times, when unemployment is at its highest, it is expected to observe a number of fishers under said conditions who also increase the amount and diversity of fishes caught. Pressures The number of fishers: As stated above, the number of reported fishers in Puerto Rico declined in the last decade from the previous average of 1,500 per census since the 1930’s. A summary of the most recent census data is presented in Figure 37. The 2008 Fishers’ Census conducted by the FRL of the DNER counted 868 registered (and licensed) fishers through the archipelago, the lowest number ever (Matos-Caraballo and Agar 2010).
Social-Ecological System of La Parguera However, we suspect that the actual number of fishers has remained the same or increased, without being licensed or recognized by the authorities. As stated in the previous section of this report, there are 85 fishers using the coastal and marine resources of La Parguera, 32 from Guánica, and 53 from the municipality of Lajas. Twenty-one fishers from Cabo Rojo live and land their catch in areas close to La Parguera: Corozo, Punta Águila, and Combate. From Lajas, most fishers are from Papayo (17), La Parguera (16) and SalinasFortuna (10). In this section we are also including the landing data from Guánica, and therefore, we need to include the 18 fishers from that municipality in our calculation. The number of fishers operating in this (extended) area of La Parguera, and beyond, is at least 124. Resource exploitation: Overfishing has been indicated as the culprit for the decline in catches from 1996 to 2002 (Matos-Caraballo et al. 2007). Overall, an increase in effort is suspect for the decline in the fisheries, and certain key commercial species such as conch and lobster. Recreational activities: La Parguera (and those coastal sites in the region, from Bahía Sucia, in Cabo Rojo, to Aurora Key [aka Gilligan’s Island] in Guánica) have become important sites for leisure-oriented activities, at the shoreline and at the keys near the coastline. These activities range from beach going activities at Playita Rosada and Mata La Gata, to boating activities from Varadero (West) to the Club Náutico (East), to the unmanageable boating activities held a Cayo Caracoles and other keys, to traditional leisure activities of parguereños at a number of cayos. As a result, boat traffic near the coast is, particularly on weekends, unbearable for fishers who often decide not ply in those waters during those days due to speeding, irresponsible navigation, groundings, etc. Non-extractive recreational activities do have an impact on the biodiversity and habitats (García-Saís and Sabater 2004). However, more precise indicators and documentation on that specific human activity and its impact on fishing remain to be explored in detail. Development: Urban development in the 20th century also impacted the estuaries where the urban poor squatted in large numbers, a process that also resulted—with the suburban expansion after the 1960’s—an encroachment of certain areas of mangroves throughout the island (Martinuzzi et al. 2009). Ironically, with the decline in agricultural activities, and the demise of the sugar cane industry, the vegetation cover throughout the island increased (López-Marrero et al. 2001), and La Parguera is an example of that, if measured by the amount of vegetation cover in the surrounding hills and the recuperation of the fringing mangroves, despite the occupation of the shoreline by the casetas (Valdés-Pizzini 2009). However, with land free from agriculture, some local landowners turned into developers, urbanizing their lands and selling plots for construction projects or individual homes. That development, mostly in the western area of town, impacted the coastal habitats (Hertler et al. 2009). State change
Figure 37. Data on the number of fishers for Puerto Rico
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Fish abundance: There is consensus the abundance of fish has declined over the past 50 years in La Parguera. Large catches of mutton snapper (L. synagris) and red-hind groupers (E. guttatus) are a thing of the past. Recreational fishers identified La Parguera, in the 1950’s, as one of the promising fishing areas, and a quaint spot for leisure (Bird 1960). The newspaper weekly column (Pescando en Puerto Rico, “Fishing in Puerto Rico”, El Mundo) consistently published notes and anecdotes of legendary catches, and the cornucopia of their spoils. Indeed, the personal archive of one of the most important sport fishers in the region, Manuel 81
