I occasionally interviewed S.American fishermen who were fishing with dynamite from dugout canoes. I asked if they were concerned about destroying the reefs and small fry. He declared that "We have to feed
el pueblo (the people). The ocean is a bottomless mine that we can never use up." That was in the '70's. I was a
boga (oarsman), and
calonero (net handler) on a 5-man beach-seine crew out of the same town at that time for a few months while I was down on my luck. The fisheries had already started to decline, but we still frequently came home with 1,000 lb. of King Mackeral, Jackfish, Albacore, Bonito, etc. They don't catch much fish there anymore. As the fisheries continued to decline, tourism became the main industry.
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