Social-Ecological System of La Parguera La Parguera has a long tradition of fishing, and hence the development by fishers over the years of LEK. It is difficult to assess if that knowledge and tradition is waning or keeping its strength, as family and crew members of traditional fisher families are moving into other occupations, and the void is filled by newcomers. Despite modernization and development over the past 50 years in La Parguera, with the increased housing and population (both residents and a floating population), the site has kept its identity as a coastal community. However, it is the perception of social scientists that La Parguera is a fishing community only as a postcard, that is, in appearance (Brusi 2004). Indeed, La Parguera has suffered the social displacement of the local population, who originally lived on the coast, to the parcelas, while middle and upper class families from Lajas and nearby towns moved into the floating houses and the casetas since the 1950’s and 1960’s. That process is dubbed as coastal gentrification (Griffith et al. 2007, Brusi 2008), and is impacting, in socioeconomic and political terms, fishing and coastal communities throughout the United States. La Parguera has maintained some cultural elements that underscore their fishing and coastal heritage, as well as religious and social celebrations and commemorations to that effect (Griffith et al. 2007). The communities of Papayo (one of the poorest communities in Puerto Rico) and Salinas Fortuna (an area of parcelas) also maintain their coastal identity. Papayo has suffered the impact of gentrification in the last 15 years with the occupation of the land closer to the coast by what Brusi calls “deluxe squatters” that shows some resemblance with the process in La Parguera. At the time of this writing, fishers from Salinas Providencia and Papayo were under the market control of a fisher dealer from La Parguera. This adds to a long termed competition and discrepancies (and animosity) between the people of Papayo and those in La Parguera, that was exacerbated during the process to promote Cayo Turrumote as a marine reserve. Final comments on Responses- One of the difficulties or challenges in elaborating a DPSIR model is that, in reality, those links and relationships are not static, but dynamic, and there are an unspecified number of feedbacks that modify the components of the system. Appendix 4 presents a diagram that organizes the information provided in this section, on the Fisheries DPSIR. The diagram depicts a handful of feedback relationships that we documented for the fisheries.
Social-Ecological System of La Parguera (Matos-Caraballo and Agar 2010), add uncertainty and suspicion regarding the real number of commercial fishers, and suggests a practice of dodging the system. v. Fishers interviewed in the Census (39%) indicated that one of the impacts of the DNER regulations consisted in a reduction of their income, a number lower than in previous years (Matos-Caraballo and Agar 2010). vi. The decrease in the number of fishers who are declaring their catches is also reflected in the decline in the landings. vii. The reporting of landings suffered from several budget cuts through the last 4 years, and therefore, the accuracy of the reporting also suffered (Matos-Caraballo, personal communication). Reporting is also viewed as cumbersome by some fishers, who do not comply with the process (Matos-Caraballo and Agar 2010). The government of Puerto Rico succeeded—by the sheer, and unforeseen force of their actions—to reduce the number of part-time fishers. Arguably, part-time fishers may be the most resilient producers who could have been essential for the sustainability of the fisheries, as they had other jobs and occupation to fall back during difficult periods. Part-time fishing is a quintessential mode of operation in most fisheries throughout the world, and these producers also show levels of LEK, similar to the full-time fishers (García Quijano 2007). As stated in this section, a number of processes are charged with social legacies and recognizable path dependences, such as agriculture, manufacturing and construction, a triad of activities that will continue to impact the local fisheries, as well as the habitats of the La Parguera ecosystem. The cluster of responses to the fisheries, are having—and will continue to have—both, positive and negative effects on the resource users, the habitats and the species. We are recommending that the stakeholders become involved in a process of distillation and refinement to explore all the possibilities and complexities of the socialecological system of La Parguera using the DPSIR diagrams and discussions presented in this report.
The Fisheries Law, the ensuing regulations, and the licenses had a series of unexpected consequences that have been well documented, or suggested, by Matos-Caraballo et al. 2007, and Matos-Caraballo and Agar (2010). These are: i. The number of licensed fishers decreased dramatically. ii. According to Matos-Caraballo et al. (2007) admission, the Fisheries Law led many fishers to retire from this productive activity. Seasonal closures and restrictions (e.g., minimum sizes) played a major role in this process, iii. A large number of fishers (33.5%) in the 2008 Census did not have a license. It is feasible to suggest that the loss in the number of fishers is due to the fishers’ decision to contend the containment strategy of the government and to remain uncounted and fishing without any restrictions. iv. The data discrepancies between the DNER accounting of licenses (a total of 1,129: 416 apprentice, 89 part-time, and 624 full-time) and the Fisheries Research Laboratory 90
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