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To avoid stinging tourists during Holy Week, the city of Huatabampo, in the Mexican state of Sonora, has implemented the mutilation of stingrays on one of its busiest beaches. In some videos circulated by activists on social networks, employees of the city’s department of ecology catch the young fish and, before returning them to the water, pull out the poisonous spine.
In one of the published videos, an official at Huatabampo City Hall explains that the stingers will be removed from the rays so that tourists can “swim, have fun and at the same time leave without incident”. For Raúl Díaz, director of the Center for Technological Studies of the Sea (Cetmar), this is a “completely false message that encourages an improper practice”.
“In addition to leaving these fish vulnerable to their predators, natural cycles are disrupted, affecting the marine ecosystem,” he says. As the director of Cetmar, a Sonoran educational institution that promotes, coordinates and directs research to improve the marine environment, explains, the spur hidden in the ventral ridge of the tail that rays tear off is “their mechanism to protect themselves from predators protection.”
Driven away by ocean currents, this season stingrays approach shores in search of warm water, which can sometimes cause accidents with bathers. As Elsa María Coria, veterinarian and director of the Wildlife Rescue, Rehabilitation and Research Center (Crrifs), explains, “These animals breed once a year, between April and May, when they move to shallow sandy-bottomed areas where the water is warm, which helps them mature to reproduce.”
Although this species of fish does not display aggressive behavior, it can respond defensively with a tail flick to embed the venomous sting when approached. An episode that the authorities tried to avoid by performing the mutation of the spines, justifying that the species reproduces again the mutilated part.
“When the animal bites, it can lose part of the stinger, which then regenerates. But if done abruptly with a jerk, it can damage them internally and even lead to death. We have no idea how many of them survive,” warns the veterinarian. As he explains, there is no previous animal impact study to support this decision, nor has a census of mutilated specimens been conducted. Add to that the stress of catching them in nets, manipulating them to remove their spines, which they do with their hands, and then carelessly tossing them back into the water,” says Coria.
Like sharks, rays are protected by the official Mexican standard NOM-029-PESC-2006, “and their care and conservation is important for ecosystem balance. These measures not only threaten the marine fauna and the conservation of this species in its natural habitat, but also the balance of the ecosystem. “Let’s remember that we are the ones invading your home,” says Coria.
Following a complaint filed by a group of environmentalists with the Federal Environmental Prosecutor’s Office (Profepa), the municipality’s mayor decided to suspend the leader of the controversial initiative, Elizabeth Guerrero Moreno, who served as the municipality’s ecology coordinator. However, as the director of Cetmar points out, this year’s episode is nothing new.
“This is a custom that has been carried out by other administrations in recent years. Prior to 2020, the community was already collaborating with local fishermen on this practice, despite not having permission from any relevant authority,” he says. “The same thing happened in 2019 and Profepa intervened, but without consequences,” says the director of Crrifs.
It is important to Coria that the federal prosecutor for environmental protection act accordingly and impose an exemplary sanction so that the municipality does not do it again. “Even when economic sanctions are imposed, the cultural issue is a very important factor in protecting the marine environment, which is why it is so important to promote other types of values. We need more education and awareness,” concludes Díaz.
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