WWW.WAS.ORG • WORLD AQUACULTURE • DECEMBER 2016 31 (CONTINUED ON PAGE 32) but now overfished and affected by pollution to the point that it is extremely rare to catch this fish. Totoaba maws are valued for their high collagen content and some people believe they can boost fertility, circulation, skin vitality, and longevity. Because of these perceived properties and their scarcity and illegal status, dried swim bladders of totoaba command astronomical prices. Typical prices to the consumer in Hong Kong vary from about US$2,600 for a 100-g dry totoaba bladder to US$25,000 for a 500-g unit. The Chinese have been known to stockpile the more valuable bladders as a form of speculative investment and to use them as currency. Illegal fishermen in the upper Sea of Cortez are paid US$3,000-5,000/kg of fresh swim bladder, known as buche de totoaba in Mexico. Historically Chinese demand for totoaba maws drove the development of the commercial fishery in the upper Sea of Cortez and, paired with challenges in enforcement of fishing regulations, contributed to its eventual collapse in the mid-twentieth century. To this day, the economic incentives for illegal fishing and trafficking of totoaba continue to threaten the possibility of establishing a sustainable fishery and the very existence of totoaba and related valuable species. The Totoaba Fishery The story of the totoaba fishery is one of greed, short sightedness, and ineffective governance, tragically driving a valuable natural resource to near extinction, while contributing to the impoverishment of the local population, rather than to their prosperity. Before the commercial fishery began at the turn of the twentieth century, totoaba were part of the diet and folklore of the indigenous people. The Seri people of Sonora used harpoons with large points to spear totoaba in shallow nearshore waters (Bahre et al. 2000). Stories abound of how incredibly plentiful and large the totoaba were in those days. Asian demand for swim bladders prompted the beginning of a hook and line fishery around 1910 in the coastal waters between Guaymas and the delta of the Fuerte River. Devoid of effective regulation, in a frontier region often forgotten by authorities, the exploitation of totoaba was characterized by wanton waste. Fish were dragged onto the beach, slit open, and their swim bladders were removed, dried, and shipped to China via San Francisco (Bahre et al. 2000). Lack of refrigeration and transport infrastructure, together with the high price of the swim bladder, made perverse economic sense for the totoaba carcasses to be left on the beaches to rot (Fig. 3). These practices accelerated so swiftly that totoaba was already commercially depleted in that zone by the 1920s, and fishing moved north towards the mouth of the Colorado River, the spawning and nursery grounds of the fish (Kira 2005). In the early 1920s fishermen discovered that totoaba aggregated for spawning in great numbers in the waters of the Colorado River delta. The commercial fishery took advantage of this reproductive migration and thus became the most important economic activity in the area; so important that it brought about some of the first permanent settlements along the northern coastline of Sonora and Baja California (Bahre et al. 2000), including the fishing camps of San Felipe (1923), Golfo de Santa Clara (1927), and Puerto Peñasco (1928). A market for to their natal spawning and nursery areas near the Colorado River delta, where they remain through the spawning period the following spring (Cisneros-Mata et al. 1995). The Totoaba Swim Bladder The swim bladder is an internal, gas-filled organ that fish use to regulate buoyancy. In totoaba and other sound-producing fish it also functions as a resonating chamber for a group of specialized muscles that vibrate against it, producing a croaking or drumming sound used for communication and location purposes. The swim bladder has properties that make it highly appreciated as an ingredient in Chinese cuisine and medicine. Fish swim bladders, known as maws, are prepared in traditional soups or stews. Dried swim bladders of totoaba are known in China as jin quian min, which translates to “money maw.” They are highly appreciated due to their similarity to those of the Chinese bahaba, or giant yellow croaker Bahaba taipingensis, once abundant in the south of China, FIGURE 3. Totoaba on the beach after having their swim bladders extracted by indigenous Seri women and children in Bahia Kino, circa 1935. The boy on the left is holding a large swim bladder. Reprinted with permission from the University of Arizona Libraries Special Collections, Laurence Huey Collection # 9232. 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 Volume X 109 (m3) Reported Catch (MT) Catch Volume FIGURE 4. Reported annual catch of totoaba in the Sea of Cortez, 1930 to 1975, and annual volume of Colorado River water delivered to Mexico (from Cisneros-Mata et al. 1995).
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