por ALFREDO AZCARATE VARELA
THE BAJA POST
The season to capture Red Sea Urchin opened in July, it´s an echinoderm that dwells in coastal environments from Alaska to Baja California, in moderate wave areas, its capture gives job to many people in the mid peninsula´s Pacific Coast, and Japan buys nearly the whole production, so this first of July, starting the season, there´s uncertainty about the activity in that country´s market,.
Hundreds of Baja Californian fishers started the red urchin season, a very appreciated species, and the expectation is of a relevant reactivation, and thanked all those licensees and concessionaries have taken the name and prestige of Baja California to the world, and the beginning of this year´s season comes as a hope for release, in the middle of the COVID19 pandemics, said Mario Escobedo, Baja California Secretary of Economy and Tourism.
Escobedo said that the annual production amounts to 2 thousand 280 metric tons (around 5 million pounds) and this activity creates about 3 thousand 800 jobs, and exportations to Japan date back to 1972, Japan buys most of the production,
Escobedo and Fishery Undersecretary Celina Dominguez, got together with members of the Society of Divers and Fishers of Ejido Esteban Cantú, in “Arbolitos” fishing camp, they were welcomed by José Luis Fuerte Espinoza CEO, y and the President of the Surveillance Council, Benjamin Ponce, they asked Secretary Escobedo a launching ramp for their boats, which would improve safety and could trigger other activities such a sports fishing.
