On Mexico’s Caribbean Coast, There’s Lobster for the Tourists and Microplastics for Everyone Else
Fishermen of Puerto Morelos, on the Caribbean coast of Mexico, risk their lives whenever they head for the sea to fish or dive for lobsters. Their bonus depends on luck, because time often makes it impossible to go out, while other days, the hooks they throw come back empty. These workers offered themselves every day to find the best possible lobsters for wealthy vacationers who come to the region, while they and their families have cut many advantages of tourism development, are carried out on fish full of microplastics.
Omar Omar Oslet Rivera-Garibay, researcher at the Institute of Marine Sciences and Limnology of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, documented the life of these fishermen in a recent study. He and his colleagues report that, if the members of the Pescadores of Puerto Morelos fish the cooperative harvest and sell seafood products of great value to satisfy the appetites of tourists, they are found with the fish taken near the city beaches for their own consumption. It has little commercial value and is contaminated by tiny plastic fragments.
As part of their research, Rivera-Garibay and the team captured 424 fish of 29 different species using the same methods as the cooperative partners. All were dissected and their digestive tubes were deleted and examined. Contaminants were found in 57% of fish, with more than a thousand recovered microplastic particles. Research noted that “the fish captured with hands in shallow waters near the coast had many more microplastics in their intestines than those captured in deeper waters.”
Line fishing is a traditional method that has long been used in shallow waters near Puerto Morelos. It simply consists of a line and a hook, and can be used to catch fish such as Croaker, which can be eaten but which have little commercial value. Two other methods are used to catch more precious species. A línea de rosario (“Rosary Line”) consists of several lines with a series of branched hooks and is used in deeper waters, about 20 naval miles from the coast. It is used to catch the living, the grouper and the pig. The lobster is captured by free divers using throws.
The least important fish, containing more microplastics, are brought home by fishermen to feed their families; Great value fish are sold to tourists here in the state of Quintana Roo, which receives more than 20 million visitors each year who spend more than $ 20 billion. Quintana Roo is the Mexican state with the highest income of tourism, but that does not take place at the bottom of the population pyramid. In 2020, 42.6% of the population of Puerto Morelos lived in poverty or extreme poverty, according to data from the Secretariat of the Economy of Mexico.
Rivera-Garibay highlights the dangers of microplastics in fish. “These species are consumed by humans. Microplastics contain potentially dangerous chemicals, such as plastic monomers and additives, and they absorb toxic environmental contaminants, such as harmful microbes and algae that can cause diseases in humans, “explains Rivera-Garibay. “However, there is still no solid evidence that the safety of seafood is compromised by microplastics. A better understanding of the impacts of microplastics on seafood is urgent. ”
