When Fishing Communities Meet Tourism:Fishers' and Tourists' Perceptions on Holbox Island

We aim to understand the conservation needs of Holbox’s natural capital by documenting and integrating fishers’ traditional knowledge, tourists’ perspectives, historical and archaeozoological data, and underwater... [ view full abstract ]

We aim to understand the conservation needs of Holbox’s natural capital by documenting and integrating fishers’ traditional knowledge, tourists’ perspectives, historical and archaeozoological data, and underwater landscape recordings.

Firstly, we documented Holbox’s fishing history. We conducted 150 surveys of fishers’ traditional knowledge on fisheries exploitation, fishing practices, and knowledge of historical fishing sites. Survey results were analyzed using geospatial tools which allowed the construction of coastal exploitation maps for 113 fishing sites. Fishers’ traditional knowledge documented over 70 species in diverse families (e.g. Carcharhinidae) that were abundant and highly fished over the past 40 years. Data of 545 archaeozoological remains from the Mayan coastal site of Vista Alegre identified 33 families of exploited taxa, of which finfish and sharks, were the most abundant. Fishers and literature sources document Holbox’s contemporary issues, including overfishing, illegal fishing, and accelerated tourism development.

Secondly, we are studying interactions between fishers, landscapes, and tourism to document how Holbox’s socio-ecological environment has evolved. We collected 200 tourists’ perceptions of: sustainability, environmental issues and seafood consumption. Preliminary results show that 54% percent of tourists agree tourism has negative environmental impacts, but only 5% of tourists actually research Holbox’s environmental issues. This shows island conservation campaigns are needed beyond the local scale. Lastly, underwater video recordings of historical fishing sites that are currently popular tourist snorkeling sites allow us to qualitatively describe these undocumented landscapes. Combining the aforementioned data using historical ecology techniques, among others, can provide baseline information to develop policies tailored to preserve Holbox’s natural capital.