Middlemen´s Informal Trading System and its Linkages With IUU Fishing Activities in The Port of Progreso, Mexico

AQUAFISH, USAID, NEPAD Planning and Coordination Agency, Norad, The World Bank, Hyatt Regency Dar es Salaam, NAAFE, World Wildlife Fund, United Nations University Fisheries Training Programme, ICEIDA, JICA, JIFRS, The European Association of Fisheries Economists, International Seafood Sustainability Foundation

The aim of the paper is to explore the economic environment that makes informal fish trading possible, the nature of these activities and how they are interconnected or might stimulate IUU fishing activities in the port of Progreso, Yucatan, Mexico. The main argument is that fish trading by middlemen has been developed within the scope of an informal sector which depends on the existence of structural and organisational factors such as: a dual economic system where the formal and informal sectors are complementary and interdependent, and an institutional environment and a socio-economic network that interconnects both sectors and supports the activity.Research for this study was carried out during 2008 and 2009 in the port of Progreso, Yucatan, Mexico. The survey strategy was a non-probability sample adapting and combining chain referral techniques because middlemen in this region are a hidden population. The size and boundaries of this population are unknown and there are strong privacy concerns among the members of this social group because it is a predominantly informal activity.Findings indicate that fish trading by middlemen is a way of absorbing labour and generating income, as is the case for several other informal activities. The main motivation for middlemen to remain underground is to maximise benefits. In order to do so, they need to build a socioeconomic network which is the centre of their trading system. This way of operating generates incentives for fishers to fish illegally because middlemen would buy their products even if they do not meet formal regulations.

Participation at the IIFET 2012 conference in Tanzania was sponsored by NORAD, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation.The full version of this paper has been accepted for publication in the Marine Policy Journal as of October 2012 - http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/0308597X