Even before the octopus season ends Dec. 15, some fishermen are already packing their nets, calling it the “worst in history.”
Some haven’t even broke even to cover their costs to take their boats out tot the Gulf of Mexico, Punto Medio reports.
Preliminary figures indicate that pulpo catches are down 50% this year, totaling no more than 20,000 tons. The season began Aug. 1.
Larger boats have a leg up on the smaller independent fishermen, who have a rougher time managing cold fronts that have already arrived to the Yucatan coast.
“Perhaps the vessels of the larger fleet, which are the ones that have best done with the catch volumes, will continue until the end but many of the coastal fishermen, who are more than 13,000, would already close the season,” said the president of the Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives of the Center and West of the state, José Luis Carrillo Galaz.
Much of the pulpo is served locally, but much of it is exported from Progreso to Italy and Japan.
Text and photo: Agencies
