The Gulf of California Sardine Complex: Challenges to Sustainability

This study examined Gulf of California Sardine Fishery (GCSF) as a case study for the sustainability of Mexico’s largest fishery by volume. Notwithstanding the vast number of important publications about GCSF, there is no robust stock assessment for identifying regional resource trends. However, some studies have demonstrated that the fishery has collapsed over the last thirty years, suggesting increasingly unsustainable fishing practices around the GCSF. The main objective of the research is to understand ecological and social-cultural issues related to the Gulf of California Sardine Fishery. The project is based on the assumption that the GCSF should be properly managed to avoid ecological and socioeconomic crises