Fishing in Sinaloa

Vanessa L            

Period 4

4/11/12

       

Fishing in Sinaloa

 My father has been my inspiration because of the stories he would tell me about and the fun he would have. He would always have fun as a young teen but at the same time he would get in trouble. Reminiscing on stories about how he would travel with his dad seeking for work all around Mexico. He was born in Sinaloa but was raised in different parts of Mexico due to working opportunities in different areas. One of his stories caught my attention that dealt with him working with fish and how there was a difference between real and invitational fish. He would first work on boat catching fish and retrieving them to the market for a low price in cases. “Those are the fresh fish that would be naturally breaded”. The fake ones would be the ones that would be breaded by the workers in large containers. They would start off by filling up the tank with shrimp eggs and in time they would grow and pack up the tank. It would end up so full that when someone would throw in a net they would come out with five pounds of shrimp.

Sinaloa is such a popular fishing area.  “The artisanal Sinaloa shrimp fishery generates annual landings of 850 tons with a value of $3.4 million. Fishing is conducted in 25-foot-long vessels equipped with outboard motors (only for transportation purposes, because the gear is operated using the wind/tide currents) and an 80-foot modified cast net operated by two fishermen who conduct daylight trips” (sustainable fisheries partnership). The fisheries create a gross income that takes up a small amount of menial labor since there are machines that do all the labor. While in my father’s time he worked with double the work force to even get half of the shrimp captured by today’s aquatic technology.        

When at the” biberros” my father would clean up the tanks in order for them to be ready for the breeding process continuation. “When breeding, the shrimp need a consistent food source in order to survive. If the shrimp population of an aquarium is small to moderate, the algae are an adequate food source. If supplemental feeding becomes necessary blanched vegetables and prepared fish foods are reliable food sources” (The shrimp farm). When the shrimp became mature and ready to retract my father would empty out the tanks into a giant net through the side of the tank. The process interested him because of the new shrimping process he obtained.