The largest fishery production in the country is the northwestern region of Mexico. The 2005 Yearbook of Fishing Statistics indicates that the states of this region (Sonora, Sinaloa, Baja California Sur, and Baja California) contribute with 86% of the capture in the Pacific coast, which is equivalent to 67% of the national fishery production and provides more than 81,000 direct employments. It is in this region where the country has the most developed industrial fisheries (shrimp, tuna fish, sardine), and the largest sports, deep sea and coastal fishing.

Fisheries in the area show notable problems. Among them are over dimension of fleet, social conflicts due to resource access, over exploitation of populations, increasing fishery effort, decrease in capture, low economic yield, and international markets that demand quality products and sustainability of the fishing activity as a condition to have access to them. These problems derive in large measure to the lack of an integral and sustainable management approach for this activity.

General Objective

Develop research on reproductive ecology, genetics, physiology, population dynamics, oceanography, bioeconomics, and on the productive chain of the different fishery resources, which will contribute to integrate management plans that guarantee sustainability of the activity, the jobs it generates, and the preservation of the ecosystems and populations it depends on.

Specific Objectives

• Analysis and design of fishery management plans;
  

• Study of population dynamics of exploited species;
  

• Determining composition and genetic richness of commercially potential populations;
  

• Studies on fishing fleet dynamics and its interaction with marine ecosystems;

• Bioeconomic and socioeconomic fishing analyses.