The Problem with Fishing Juveniles
By Dr. Peter Klimley

Many of us would like the population of hammerhead shark in the Gulf of California to be restored to  it previous level. If this is not possible, it is important to return the population to a  sustainable level - remaining constant from year to year.

The first symptom of a collapsing fishery is the rarity of older fish in the catches of fishermen -  the fishing pressure has become so intense and effective that few fish escape early capture and  survive to an old age.

Faced with the scarcity of adults, fishing camps along the shores of the Gulf of California have  begun catching large numbers of juveniles in their gill nets. This practice will simply worsen the  plight of the species, and soon there will be few juvenile hammerhead sharks as well in the gulf. As  the fishing camps profit marginally from the capture of a few juvenile hammerheads, the recreational  diving industry operating out of La Paz , the largest city in Southern Baja , has been impacted  greatly by the rarity of adult hammerheads in the local waters.

Dr. Peter Klimley, Ph.D. (Pete) is an adjunct associate professor at the biometry lab in the  Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology at UC DAVIS and a scientific advisor to  IEMANYA OCEANICA.