Mexico is a country of infinite diversities. Its coasts shelter some of the richest seas in the world, with fauna that cannot be found anywhere else on Earth, and species that migrate year after year from the most distant oceans, but that choose their temporary refuges in our waters.
The wonder of the Mexican seas finds its contrast with the life of humans on the mainland. Beyond the luxurious hotels, and the Five-star resort, and paradises reserved for foreigners, many of the inhabitants that populate the coasts of Mexico are poor fishermen, who live from what they manage to get out of the sea. Sometimes necessity and life itself do not allow them to differentiate what they catch in their nets, and in their daily journeys, in addition to their food, they fish for vulnerable turtles and various other animals that are at risk of disappearing.
Mexican fishermen are vulnerable communities. NTX/ FILE
Through the Disney Conservation Fund, scientist Jesse Senko works with the coastal communities of Baja California to teach Mexican fishermen new, responsible and self-sustaining methods of fishing, not only for marine life, but for the benefit of the fishermen themselves. , It is a cycle that we are all part of: taking care of the sea, and taking care of it in this way and making human life more dignified.
Jesse, how did you decide to dedicate your life to this particular job? I imagine you are a man who loves the sea…
When I was a boy, when I was twelve years old, I went with my family on vacations and I swam with the sea turtles. I remember swimming with them, going back to the boat, and saying to my parents, I want to study turtles. They made fun of me. Since I was a child I have been obsessed with them. And I’ve always tried to find ways to protect them.
Here in Mexico, a large percentage of our fishermen are poor. They live up to date. How can they be educated to protect vulnerable animals when their only livelihood comes from fishing?
THE INFORMANT/ ARCHIVE
What we need to think about is that this is not just about protecting the turtles, but how we can protect the fishermen and coastal communities, and how we can improve their lives. That will benefit the sea turtles. Many of the fishermen in Mexico do not seek to catch them; they protect them. It is a hassle to deal with when you catch them, because when you are in a small boat, in the middle of the ocean, you have to get the animals out of the net, which is very problematic. In many cases the fishermen are forced to cut the net, it is easier. So we work with them to develop different approaches and solutions, how we can reduce turtle bycatch, how to make it easier.
One example: through the Disney Conservation Fund, we develop solar-powered lights that we put in fishing nets, which reduce turtle bycatch by anywhere from 50 to 90%. It’s great, and we also find that the catch of other species is reduced. This cuts fishermen from 55 to 70 minutes, as they no longer have to remove animals from the nets, making fishing more effective. So trying to find those scenarios has been very important to our world, and it’s been one of the reasons why we’ve been successful.
You’ve been to Baja California. In what other part of Mexico have you worked with the fishermen?
We work mainly in Baja California. But we focus on both the Pacific and the Gulf. Recently, with the Disney Fund, we are going to expand to Sinaloa and Sonora. We are also interested in Oaxaca. We are expanding our work, and our purpose is the entire Mexican Pacific coast.
Have the Mexican fishermen been willing to learn these new methods that you have taught them?
THE INFORMANT/ ARCHIVE
We have many fishermen and coastal communities that have been very interested in working with us. We haven’t found anyone who doesn’t want to. It’s finding a balance: obviously we want to work in areas where there are a lot of sea turtle bycatch, but we also want to reach vulnerable communities. who can benefit from our help. It’s trying to find more marginalized communities, and communities with high bycatch of sea turtles.
What do you think of the situation in Mexico considering the corruption of the government, or the illegal hunting? Has it affected your work?
Not really, because the vast majority of the fishermen we work with do not traffic turtles or sell them on the black market. They really do not want to capture them, for them it is very problematic to get them out of the nets. It is very different from trafficking rhinos, elephants or any other type of animal, where there are very large trafficking networks. We don’t really deal with it. In Mexico, these communities just want to make a living, but unfortunately they capture many turtles and vulnerable species, so our purpose is how to make life easier for them.
Jesse, my last question is, how do you find the courage to keep fighting these daily battles? What is it that keeps you motivated?
“Biology will not protect the animals if we don’t work with the fishermen and coastal communities.” Jesse Senko. SPECIAL
It all goes back to when I was in my master’s degree, in 2008, in Florida. We were tracking the sea turtles, their movements. They all told me; to protect them, you have to understand where they go. And what happened was, for a whole summer, I tracked the turtles to fishing nets. They died in the networks. The fishermen brought me the turtles and that surprised me a lot, because having these turtles was a problem for them, and they wanted to be part of our project, of our work. I realized that biology will not protect the animals unless we work with fishermen and coastal communities, while not teaching them solutions to reduce bycatch.
I realized at that moment that if I ever did a PhD, it would be to develop solar lights for fishing nets, to make work easier, more sustainable, more efficient. What motivates me is thinking about those days, when we tracked turtles, and our work didn’t matter, because they died in the nets. That taught me the importance of working with the fishermen.
That is what motivates me. Much of that inspiration comes from coastal communities. Many see the fishermen as the bad guys in the story, as the ones who cause damage; they just want to live. They want to make a difference in the way they fish, they want their children to grow up in a world with sea turtles. And that’s what inspires me.
THE INFORMANT/ ARCHIVE
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