twin brothers Pedro and Pablo were declaring their intention ... Pedro and Pablo Vicario went to sharpen .... been known for a long time (Zamora & Stotz, 1992),.
Echinoderms: Durham - Harris et al. (eds)
© 20 10 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-40819-6
The history of the Chilean urchin fishery: Chronicle of an announced death? ~J
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~ Wolfgang B. Stotz
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Grupo Ecologia y Manejo de Recursos, Departamento de Biologia Marina, Facultad de Ciencias del Mar, ~: Universidad Cat6lica del Norte, Coquimbo, Chile
ABSTRACT: As I will show, the history of the Chilean sea urchin fishery has several parallels to "Cronica de una muerte anunciada" (translated into English as "Chronicle of a death foretold"), the story written by the 1982 Nobel prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez (awarded the Nobel prize for his novel "Hundred years of solitude"). The question is whether the sea urchin fishery will have the same end as Garcia Marquez' story. Garcia Marquez' story begins, telling that just hours after marrying the beautiful Angela Vicario, Bayardo San Roman returned his bride to her parents because he had discovered that she was not any more a virgin. Her distressedfamily forced her to tell how this had happened, and she gave a name: Santiago Nasar. Her twin brothers announced their intention to kill Santiago Nasar for dishonoring their sister. As it says on the cover of the book: "Yet if everyone knew the murder was going to happen, why did no one intervene to stop it?" and "a story that investigates the question of why and how two young men have undertaken a brutal murder that they seem not to have wanted to commit".
THE SIGNS OF THE DEVELOPING DISASTER BECOME EVIDENT In both stories, the fishery and the history of Santiago Nasar, diverse signs of the building up of a disaster or tragedy appear during its development, which if correctly interpreted and used, could be a basis to avoid the fatal end.
1.1
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Building up the scenario of the fishery
For the Chilean sea urchinfishery of Loxechinus albus (Molina, 1782), after a slight decline in landings during the eighties, the nineties suggested promising times, with a growing fishery (Fig. 1). Chile developed into the main sea urchin producer in the world (Andrew et al., 2002), representing between 53 to 64% of world sea urchin landings (Fig. I). But resembling the strategy of Berkes' roving bandits (Berkes et al., 2006), growth has been attained by successive incorporation of new fishing zones (Fig. 2). At first within region X and then advancing to region XI, but the latter was nevertheless not properly shown by landing data, because most urchins captured in region XI are landed in Quellon, the southernmost port of region X (Fig. 2). So, the recovery of the fishery in region X after its decline towards the end of the eighties was mainly sustained by urchins coming from region XI. The fishers from region XI, observing the fishers of region X invading their fishing zones and apparently aware of the situation, protested and tried to push them out,
Figure I.
World landings of sea urchins (data obtained from
wwwfao.org).
being worried about their resource. In response,negotiations were established between fishers from both regions, together with authorities, industry and with the aid of scientists, in order to resolve conflicts and manage the fishery (Moreno et ai., 2007). Once there were no more new fishing zones available in regions X and XI, the fishery started in region XII. Fishing sites within this region changed over time (Fig. 3), showing that the virginal accumulated biomass was sequentially fished down in approximately three to four years, after which the landings also declined in this region and then established a pattern of fluctuating landings between years. The size structure of landings in regions X and XI show that most of the larger individuals were fished out, and by 2004 most landed urchins were
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Figure 2. Landings of sea urchins in Chile by regions (data obtained from www.sernapesca.cl). 50
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Figure 4. Size structure of sea urchin landings in region X and XI (data provided by N. Barahona, Instituto de Fomento Pesquero, Chile).
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Figure 3. Landings in region XII, in general and separated by fishing sites along the time (adapted from Stotz, 1999).
below the legal size of 70 mm (Fig. 4). In region XII, although larger individuals became rare in landings, the proportion of individuals below the legal size of 70 mm has not increased (Fig. 5). The urchin is fished by divers using wet suits, working from small (6-9m long) wooden boats, equipped with Hookah (a compressor in the boat, which delivers compressed air through a hose to the diver). As fishing zones were getting increasingly remote, being 10 to 20 hours of navigation away from landing ports, small fleets of dive boats began to aggregate in temporary ports in remote areas, working around that area, and delivering there the daily product to transporter ships. Once a spot has been fished out, the fleet moves and establishes a new temporal port. Fluctuating landings between years, once the virgin biomass was fished out in region XII, is produced mainly by a very irregular recruitment in that region, with recruitment failures some of the years and/or sites, producing patches of different sizes and different age compositions along the region (Stotz, 1999, 2004). This temporal and spatial recruitment variability can be theoretically understood, considering the
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Figure 5. Size structure of sea urchin landings in region XII (data provided by N. Barahona, Instituto de Fomento Pesquero, Chile).
complex topography, with hundreds of isles, channels, fjords, bays, etc., with tidal heights of several meters, producing strong tidal currents by which the larvae may be flushed out from the shallow into the deep channels or out to the open ocean. This dynamic acts over an already patchy distribution of the species, or of the age classes able to reproduce. Furthermore, the urchin larvae in some years may match and in other years mismatch the very short Oust a few weeks) phytoplankton bloom in spring, as observed for two populations studied in 1997 by Oyarztin et al. (1999). Stotz (1999) estimated that adopting a rotational strategy, with four years rest to each site, would maintain landings of about 25,000 t . a -I in region XII. Not establishing a rotational strategy would demand an increased effort in order to find the places with urchins above the legal size limit (70 mm of test diameter), landings being at best around 14,000 t·a-l, with great fluctuations between years (Stotz, 1-999). The reality turned out to be a little better than these predictions. Fishers rotating between sites by themselves but since each one does not know what the others are doing - sometimes they may find areas not visited by someone, others not, the result being intermediate landings fluctuating between both predictions (Fig. 3).
1.2
Building up the tragedy in Gabriel Garcia Marquez 'story
For Santiago Nasar the day of his fatal end started (as with the sea urchin fishery in the nineties), as a happy and sunny day, having enjoyed, together with the entire town, Angela ~ wedding party the night before. But that morning, when he left his home, he was ignoring what was really happening (as occurs if only total landings, not separated by region, are analyzed). By that time the bride had been returned to her parents, her twin brothers Pedro and Pablo were declaring their intention and starting their preparation to kill Santiago Nasar, thus beginning to build up the scenario for the tragedy. Pedro and Pablo Vicario went to sharpen their knives in the market, by the butchers. And while sharpening, they told everyone why they were doing it: to kill Santiago Nasar. Thus, they were giving clear signs of their intentions (the same as landing data do, being evidence for a declining fishery). Afterwards, Pedro and Pablo went to a bar in fi'ont of Santiago Nasal' ~ house, knowing that he normally does not use the front door. While in the bar, they put the knives on the table and left no doubt what they were waiting for. With all the brides' brothers had done up to that moment, not hiding their intentions, they were clearly expressing that they really wanted to be stopped in order to prevent the tragedy (as happened with the protesting fishers from region XI and the establishment of negotiations in order to manage the fishery to prevent its disaster).
2
THE RESPONSES TO THE SIGNS - THE OUTCOME OF REGULATIONS AND ACTIONS
All the signs of decline in the fishery (increasingly remote fishing sites, having to change those frequently, increasingly fluctuating landings and decreasing size structure) should have been sufficient evidence for stakeholders to take action or at least to enforce the already existing regulations. The same is true for Santiago's history, where almost the entire town had been informed by Pedro and Pablo Vicario what they were planning to do, so that it should have been easy to avoid the tragedy. But both cases require that someone (who?) takes the leadership and all involved in the subject reach an appropriate agreement to avoid the tragedy. This sounds obvious and easy, the negotiated agreement established for regions X and XI even pointed in that direction, but due to a series of circumstances, it turned out to be ineffective to prevent the probable disaster.
2.1
The existing regulations for urchin fishery
The urchin fishery is regulated by (1) a minimum size of capture, established at 70 mm of test diameter, (2) a closure during part of the year to protect reproduction, and (3) a register of certified fishers, at present closed (no new entries allowed), which restricts operation of each one to one single region. Let us analyze what happened regarding each of these regulations in the development of the fishery.
2.2
Regarding minimum size of capture
Why is the regulation effective in region XII, but not in region X and XI? The main reason seems to be the way fishers are paid for their landings by the industry. In regions X-XI, fishers get paid per Kg total fresh weight of entire urchins. Thus, the size is not important, because what produces the money is the volume: load the boat with whatever is more available - and that is increasingly smaller sizes. However, in region XII fishers get paid per Kg of roe. Thus size becomes very important, because what produces the money is the proportion of roe in the landed volume, and this increases with size of the individual (Fig. 6B): load the boat with the biggest available sizes in order to transport less total weight per Kg of roe and get the best possible price for each individual. This difference is also beginning to produce differences in the fishing process. The fishing process with fleets in temporal ports delivering to a transporter ship where the catch of the entire fleet is mixed, and the quality (proportion of roe, color of roe) is assessed in the processing plant for the entire load, means the effort of an individual diver to catch quality urchins is averaged with the effort of all the others in the fleet. As a consequence, in region XII the strategy is changing: each individual diver or boat owner has increased the size of the boat, in order
to be large enough to hold the catch of 3--4 days and transports its own catch directly to port and plant. If the regulation of the minimum size had been enforced, almost no fishery would have been possible in regions X-XI after 2004, as apparently there were few urchins over legal size left to be landed. Fisheries authority, perhaps in the intent to be able to enforce the regulation of minimum size of capture without stopping the fishery, reduced the size limit from 70 mm to 60 mm. The argument of the industry was that this was necessary because the markets were demanding small gonads. Why wasn't this a subject of concern before? Up to now, there has been no difference in the pricing of small or big gonads. What will be the consequence of this change for the urchin population? To answer this question, we need to analyze the relation between size and its contribution to reproduction. As was shown by Stotz (2004), integrating gonad weight versus size and survivorship versus size for L. albus, the greatest average gonad weight that each individual will be able to contribute to a cohort in a single year, is reached close to 70 mm (Fig. 6A). At larger sizes, the gonad weight of each individual increases (Fig. 6B), but because of natural mortality, the number oflarge individuals in the cohort decreases, and consequently, the overall gonad production diminishes. The minimum size of capture of70 mm allows that at least 41 % ofthe potential individual gonad production goes to reproduction and each individual reproduces for at least two years, before it is fished (Fig. 6D). Exploiting the urchins at a size slightly over 70 mm (the ideal would be 70.5 mm), yields the highest roe production for the cohort, as at that size each individual contributes close to 100% of its potential maximum gonad production to the cohort, which meets with the objective of the fishery to get as much roe as possible (Stotz, 2004). Reducing the minimum size to 60 mm means that each individual at most will be able to reproduce once before beingfished, just being able to contribute only 17% of its potential gonad production to reproduction of the species, and exploiting the cohort before it is producing 82.8% of its potential maximum roe production (Fig. 6C). The decision to reduce the minimum size of capture, thus could seriously compromise the future success of reproduction of the species. If so, the demand of the industry to reduce size in order to be able to continue fishing, can be seen as a "suicide in self defense" (in order to be able to continue fishing at present while probably killing the fishery in the near future). The administration, by satisfying the demand, provided the industry with a "life vest, but loaded with lead and a mortal leak". Right after the introduction of lower size limits landings might show a slight increase, as now less fished stocks of smaller individuals become available to the fishery. This will also be produced by the fact that the size of 60 mm is slightly above the size at which each individual contributes the most total body weight to the cohort (Fig. 6A). It is probable that by repeating the initial phase of the fishery and sequentially fishing down these partially virgin stocks of smaller individuals,
Figure 6. Effect of the reduction of minimum size of capture. A and C: total weight and gonad weight each individual will contribute to the production of the cohort, given its growth (Linf = 110 mm, K = 0.27) and mortality (z = 0.9). B: Gonad weight versus size of the urchin. D: Growth curve and ages of minimum size of reproduction (40mm), and the minimum sizes of capture (60 and 70 mm). Figure and data used adapted from Stotz, 1999.
which are already weakene by the former low observance of the minimum size of capture, that the new phase will not last long. And as these smaller sizes yield much less roe, the pressure of the industry will be to further increase fished volumes. The decreased minimum size of capture will add to the already existing reason for variable recruitment, a new one, depending on the answers to the following questions: Will there be enough gonad production for successful fertilization? Will there be enough larvae to match the phytoplankton bloom and survive up to settlement? Considering that the answers to these questions will now move closer to NO than before, the change in the minimum size of capture, will insure that the future of the stocks becomes more dubious.
2.3
Regarding closures
The aim of the closures is to protect reproduction. The long coastline of Chile, extending over almost 40 degrees of latitude produces temporal variation in the reproductive cycle along the latitudinal gradient, which is not properly considered in the regulations (Fig. 7A). Although this lack of correspondence has been known for a long time (Zamora & Stotz, 1992), the regional regulation has not been adjusted accordingly. But the question is, does this regulation makes sense at all? As the product ofthe fishery is the gonad,,; the fishery should operate during the reproductive ~ period before spawning (i.e. while the gonad is ripe), and be immediately closed once the gonad is spent. After spawning, many more individuals are required to get the same gonad weight as during the maturation period (Fig. 7B and C). Because of poor gonad conditions, many individuals may be fished, transported, but then discarded in the processing plant, i.e. being
those working at present are not in the official register and are not from Region XII. How to avoid that this is not used to increase the overall effort, given the above-mentioned incentive for fishers from regions X-XI? What will be differentfrom the original register to make it enforceable now?
2.5
Figure 7. Closed seasons to protect the reproduction of the sea urchin. A: differences of the regulation and spawnings along the country. Spawnings marked with a black box were the ones used as the basis for the original regulation. Spawnings marked with stripped boxes were published later. Figure adapted from Zamora & Stotz, 1992). B: Variation of the gonad index of the sea urchin in region IV (adapted from Zamora & Stotz, 1992). C: Variation of the gonad index of the sea urchin in region XII (adapted from OyarzUn et ai., 1999).
killed without producing anything. For the industry it would be of advantage to concentrate the fishery in the period of ripe gonads, as it would mean buying, transporting and processing fewer urchins (total weight) for more product and less discard. Thus, the objective of conservation (kill less individuals), would meet the objective of production of the fishery (get more roe out of less individuals). The present closure periods thus are affecting, more than protecting, the reproduction of the resource.
2.4
Regarding certified divers and movements
The aim of this regulation is to control and maintain a stable effort by impeding the movement of divers between regions. Nevertheless, given that divers deliver the urchin to transporter ships in temporal and remote ports, the control by the authorities being just made in the ports where transporter ships land their load, enforcement is very ineffective. Thus, many more than the formally registered divers are working for example in region XII (Stotz, 2004). Additionally, in order to transport more product on each trip, divers from region XII are hiring divers from region X-XI to help gather the load in the fishing zone, thus producing an incentive for divers from the northern regions to move south (even though this is not permitted by law). This is not easily detectable by the enforcement, because the registered diver officially lands the catch. At present, efforts are being made in region XII to produce a new register, incorporating all those actually working in the fishery. This is in order to be able then to enforce the regulation (how?), without having to stop or greatly decrease the fishery because most of
Several actions also taken to prevent the murder of Santiago Nasar
While in the town all knew what was happening, Santiago Nasar was still not aware of the danger just walking around the town, slowly approaching the place where they were waiting for him (resembling the declining fishery, probably slowly approaching its collapse). His friends were looking for him, in order to warn him, but failed to find him (resembling the voices, which from time to time have pointed to the problems in the fishery, with no effect at all). Some people even met him, but did not tell him about the danger, because they saw him walking so happy and unconcerned, that they thought the danger was already over (as perhaps stakeholders in region X and XI may feel by observing increasing landings once the minimum size of capture was reduced). And most of the town was gathering at the place to observe what was going to happen. The owner of the bar in which the bride's brothers were waiting for Santiago, served the strongest available alcohol she had, in order to get them drunk and thus not able tofinish their task, which nevertheless proved to be ineffective (as it is also true for the closures established for the fishery, which perhaps reduce temporarily the effort during the year, but with no detectable effect on the recovery of stocks). Santiago s aunt, knowing about the planned murdering, went to the police and demanded that the brothers be arrested, but even though they were clearly declaring everywhere what they were planning to do, the aunt was given the answer "one can not arrest somebody just because of being suspect". (Perhaps because of a similar reason, the authorities may be waiting to have better evidence before taking any action). The mayor of the town, being informed of what was happening, went to the bar where the brothers were waiting for Santiago Nasar, and in order to prevent the murdering, confiscated the knives, sending the brothers home. In the fishery, instead of sending the fishers home, the minimum size of capture was reduced to maintain the fishery again within the law. Thus, in both cases something was done, which perhaps might prove effective, at least in the short term: without knives the brothers were not able to kill Santiago Nasar, or by being allowed to fish smaller sized urchins, the fishery was able to continue legally, evading the problems, which the closure of the fishery would generate (fishers with no work, industry without product). However, the question is what will happen as a result of these decisions in the long term? In the story, the bride broth.ers went home, to get new knives -one brother already wanting not to return,
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