It was like that Two hours since the divers left the coast. When they reach the designated GPS points in the Mexican Bay, their boat engines pass from the roaring to whisper. In pairs they enter the Celestún shelter zone, one of the largest in Mexico. Their ritual is absolute: apply fins, adjust vests and snakes, tidy roofs and load oxygen tanks and weight. For the next few minutes their lives depends on the careful preparation of the diving for this place of hope.
They are here to restore the fall of fishing or to the brink of fall. This shelter, established zone without grip in 2019It covers 324 square kilometers and is monitored by the Smarying Community Coast Monitoring Group, a group of divers and fishermen who are supported by staff from the Mexican Institute of Research in sustainable fisheries and aquaculture (IMipas) and the Citizens’ Association and Biological Diversity Association (Cobi). Their methodology combines local knowledge with scientific rigors.
The problem they face is global: the translation and degradation of the environment destroy the biological diversity of the oceans, and in many countries there is no will or resources to combat the problem. In 2024, when temperatures on the sea surface broke the records of all time, a world -class Fund for Nature Live planet The report has shown that in the last 50 years maritime populations around the world have fallen by 56 percent. Over a third of the current marine populations are overcrowded.
In Mexico, over 700 sea species are fished in 83 fisheries, which support 200,000 Mexican families. Mexico analysis National Fisheries Card Author: Imipa indicates that 17 percent of the country’s catch is deteriorated, 62 percent are used at their maximum sustainable level, and 15 percent have no information about their condition. When non -profit ocean analyzed the same data, she stated that 34 percent of Mexico’s fishing is in “poor condition,” says to Esteban García Peña, a coordinator of research and public policy ocean.
Part of the problem is that, according to Mexican law, no one is obliged to care for the health of the country’s fishing; The general law of fishing in Mexico does not oblige the government to take this responsibility. The ocean submitted a request to change this, and in the face of a lack of legislative interest, she even submitted an order in 2021 to the Congress of the Union, accusing violations of human rights, such as access to a robust environment and food. This inspired the proposal to revive the deteriorated fishing zones in Mexico, only so as not to be analyzed or approved by the Congress, and the project was frozen.
In the face of this uncertainty, the community took things into their own hands. Although the government is not obliged to protect and revive the fisheries of the country, people may ask to establish shelter zones to save and re -leave sea ecosystems. And so today there are shelters in Baja California Sur, Quintana Roo and Campeche, with a total value of over 2 million hectares and benefits, directly or indirectly 130 species.
“When the first proposal was presented, it seemed crazy,” says Alicia Pot, researcher Imipas and head of the Aquaculture and Fisheries Regional Research Center in Juckalpetén. “Some believe that it closes the sea, but it is not. It works in a balanced way, with community supervision.”
Boundaries of abundance
The day before starting monitoring, the Celestún team gathers under a huge Palapa. Jacobo Caamal, Cobi’s diving expert, browsing the plan for the next few days. He jokingly gives practical advice, using coconuts to show how to measure sea cucumbers and sea snails.
They talk about sea cucumbers, because although this is not part of Mexican gastronomy, its half brought many profits on this coast. On the Chinese market, these creations can bring over USD 150 per one. The noise over Echinoderma has developed practices that are harmful to the ecosystem and health of fishermen, such as diving with nargileA makeshift diving machine that works on gasoline and pumps oxygen down the tube to the divers below the surface. Sanitary towels sometimes stand as an oil filter, while mint tablets are taken to alleviate the taste of gas. In Celestún, no one deny the risk of diving with this machine. Many know someone who had an accident or died of decompression.
Until 2012, this area had an abundance of cucumbers, but a violation of its closed seasons led the species to the edge of extinction. The divers began deeper and deeper to hunt them. The situation has become unthinkable. Then a group of fishermen asked Imipas researchers for lend a hand in establishing an area where the sea may have a chance to recover.