Credit: R Lai via iNaturalist (CC BY-NC 4.0) |
In Chimbote, north of Lima in Peru, fishers have been working for years to protect the Peruvian grunt (Anisotremus scapularis), a fish species in high demand for its meat, along a 1.5-kilometer (almost 1-mile) stretch of coast.
Illegal fishing methods such as explosives have become common in this area, and the authorities have failed to deter them. |
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It’s 4 a.m., and a group of fishers in the city of Chimbote, 422 kilometers (262 miles) north of Lima, have arrived at the rocks of Campamento Atahualpa and Vesique beaches. This is the area they guard to protect the Peruvian grunt (Anisotremus scapularis), a fish highly valued for its meat. They have come to relieve their peers from night-watching duties. Faced with the threat of illegal fishing that has increased in recent decades, the fishers organized a system to protect the Peruvian grunt so they could continue fishing it as they’d done for years. |
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