The Mexican tuna fleet continues to face a bad year. Its catch during the first six months of 2004 was slightly over 62,828 tons, while already reaching 91,543 tons in 2003. Therefore reflecting 28,715 tons less catch than during this same period last year, according to reports from the Mexican Chamber of Fisheries and Aquaculture Industry (Canainpesca).
The reason for this drop in capture could be caused by the shifting of tuna shoals in the Pacific due to apparent climatologic factors. On the other hand, a positive aspect is that the tuna prices are growing in the national and international markets, as a result of the decline in the supply.
Sources from the sector say that last year, it took the ships around 15 days to fill their hold, whereas now it takes them between 35 and 45 days on average, increasing their marine diesel, salaries, and supplies costs.
According to data released by the National Program of Tuna Exploitation and Dolphin Protection and published by Mexican press shows that this year's average catches amounted to around 11,000 per month, whereas in 2003 they were over 15,000 tons almost monthly. So far, the Mazatlan Port, in Sinaloa, has been the one that concentrated the majority of tuna landings. Other important ports were Manzanillo, in Chiapas, and San Carlos, in Colima.
Mexico expects that catches will recover by the end of this year, however the fleet is most probably not be able to break the historical record figure obtained in 2003 of 183,000 tons.