It's no secret that the Baja Peninsula is home to some of the best fishing on the planet. Both the Pacific Ocean side and the Sea of Cortez side of Baja offer fish of all types and sizes. What many people do not know is that Mexico has put into place an efficient system of collecting and transporting large amount of catch throughout the entire Baja Peninsula that rivals some of the best systems in the world.
How do you connect literally hundreds of fish camp settlements along a coastline that is over 2,000 miles long? Baja fishing cooperatives have the answer. Early each morning pangas depart from various fish camps all around Baja, returing in the early afternoon with the day's catch. The catch is then transfered from the fishing pangas to a nearby truck and packed with ice. After a couple of days when the truck is filled up with fish and ice the truck is driven to the local collection point, such as the cities of Ensenada or La Paz.
Fish delivered to the collection points are unloaded, categorized, and most are sent off for processing. Some of the fish are sold to the local fish markets in the processing city. After processing the fish are packaged and transported to destinations world wide. This system of fishing, placing the local catch on trucks, packing on ice, transporting and processing goes on uninterupted all year long, providing an extrememly efficient method of delivering fresh fish from the oceans of Baja to worldwide consumers in a relatively short period of time.
Baja travelers who want to see a small part of this system in action can drop by the fish market in Ensenada, located on the wharf just west of the main tourist zone. There are usually a few ice trucks unloading adjacent to the fish market, there are plenty of fish for sale, and the area is usually a scene ofsignificant activity.
For a bigger perspective of the magnitude of this coastal system a space photo of the Baja Peninsula coastline is presented below.
BAJA'S FISHING COOPERATIVES
