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The Fisheries Industry of el Salvador

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

John Thompson
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Extract

The per capita availability of fisheries products in El Salvador is about 3.3 pounds per annum. The level, while low, is not out of the ordinary for tropical America. Seafood in particular, but animal protein in all forms, is little consumed by the great bulk of the population. It is the better endowed economic classes and the fishermen who account for most of the consumption of fisheries products. Other groups, chiefly urban, regard fish and crustaceans as luxuries, ordering or serving them mainly during religious and other festive occasions.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Inter-American Studies , Volume 3 , Issue 3 , July 1961 , pp. 437 - 446
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 1961

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References

1 With the exception of Costa Rica, the Central-American countries and Panama have a per capita consumption of animal products that is less than 12 per cent of daily caloric intake. In El Salvador the animal products constitute 8 per cent of daily caloric consumption (1955). U.S. Department of Agriculture, Foreign Agricultural Service, Central America as a Market and Competitor for U.S. Agriculture, Foreign Agriculture Report 116, by Kathryn H. Wylie (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, December, 1959), Table 2. Food: Per capita consumption, Central America, calories per day, 1955, p. 3.

2 Fresh fish, which cost about 20^ per pound in San Salvador during 1957, was a luxury to the average urban working-class family which made a monthly food expenditure of $8.42 per person. República de El Salvador, Ministerio de Economía, Dirección General de Estadística y Censos, Boletín Estadístico, II Época, No. 37 (San Salvador: Dirección General de Estadística y Censos, Sección de Impresión, 1958), Precios medios al por menor de los principales artículos investigados en la ciudad de San Salvador, p. 45; also No. 38, p. 152, No. 39, p. 279, No. 40, p. 360, No. 41, p. 46. See also the agency's Anuario Estadístico, 1957, Vol. II, Cuadro No. 23— Gasto en colones de la familia obrera en las cuidades de San Salvador, Mejicanos y Villa Delgado, por grupos y subgrupos de artículos y servicios: 1957, p. 169.

3 Osear A. Cerrato V., “Informe sobre actividades de pesca durante septiembre de 1958 a agosto del corriente año” (Ministerio de Economía, Sección de Pesca y Caza Marítima, 20 Agosto, 1959), pp. 5-6. (Typewritten.) S. Y. Lin, “A Report on the General Survey of the Inland Fisheries Resources of El Salvador” (Ministerio de Agricultura y Ganadería, Sección de Piscicultura, July 1957), p. 28. (Typewritten.) Leroy S. Christey and Charles B. Wade, “Los recursos comerciales pesqueros de El Salvador, reporte preliminar” (1952) (Ministerio de Economía, Marzo 1959), p. 1. (Mimeographed.)

4 Cerrato V., p. 4, Lin, p. 28. Christey and Wade, p. 10. Interview with Oscar A. Cerrato V., September 10, 1959.

5 The importers were: Guatemala (42% by value), the United States (31%), and Honduras (26%). Anuario Estadístico, 1957, II, Cuadro No. 12, Importación y exportación por secciones y grupos de la clasificación uniforme para el comercio internacional (CUCI) y país: 1957, p. 27ff.

6 In 1957, El Salvador's total exports were valued at over $138.4 million; imports were valued at over $115.0 million. Anuario Estadístico, 1957, II, Cuadro No. 12.

7 This writer's estimate. There are no precise data to work with in arriving at such a figure.

8 Cerrato V., pp. 5-6.

9 Christey and Wade, p. 56.

10 Three of the modern operators are based at Puerto El Triunfo and two are based at La Unión.

11 Cerrato V. interview and charts of the fisheries compiled by the Ministerio de Economía, Sección de Pesca y Caza Marítima. Christey and Wade, pp. 11-12.

12 Christey and Wade, pp. 11-12.

13 Christey and Wade, pp. 11-12. The fish most commonly taken include the corvina (Cynoscion spp.), picuda (Sphyraena), bagre (catfishes), boca colorada (Lutianus), jurel (Caranx), and Mugil, Centropomus, Felichythys, Scomberomorus, Promicrops, Cyclopsetta, and Polynemus. Milton J. Lindner, “La Pesca en El Salvador,” Revista, Ministerio de Agricultura e Industria, Año II, No. 2 (Septiembre 1949), p. 29.

14 Christey and Wade, p. 57.

15 The shrimps taken include the small chacalines (Penaeus stylirostris) and the young, micas, and adult, camarones (Macrobrachium and Palaemon). Chacalines are marine shrimp; the others are fresh-water.

16 Lin, p. 28.

17 The producer harvests 50,000 - 130,000 lbs. of shrimp annually. Lin, p. 29.

18 Cerrato V. interview, and charts of the Sección de Pesca y Caza Marítima.

19 This writer's estímate is based on a consideration of material presented in the papers of Lin and Cerrato V.

20 Cerrato V. interview. Charles B. Wade, “Report .. . Suggestions for the Improvement of the Commercial Shrimp Fishery of the Lagoon of San Juan del Gozo” (Ministerio de Agricultura y Ganadería, Centro Nacional de Agronomía, April 19, 1955), p. 4. (Typewritten.)

21 Cerrato V. interview.

22 All of the fish are small. Included are the plateada, (Roeboides salvadoris), mojarra (Cichlasoma macracanthus), guapote (Cichlasoma trimaculatum), bagre [Gakichthys guatemalensis), burro (Cichlasoma nigrofasciatum), and chimbóla (Mollienesia sphenops). A crab (Potamocacinus guatemalensis) is caught in two lakes. Lin, p. 28.

23 Lin, pp. 28-29.

24 Lin, pp. 27-28.

25 Lin, pp. 14, 23, 26, 28, 41-42. Samuel F. Hildebrand and Fred J. Foster, “Los peces de agua dulce en El Salvador,” Agropecuaria, Año III, No. 3 (Enero 1950), pp. 26, 33.

26 The ice is made in San Miguel.

27 Lin, p. 27. Interview with Epharaim Monterosa A., September 3, 1959.

28 The sardina include any and all of the various species; generally they are less than two inches in length. Lin, p. 26.

29 About 594,000 lbs. are prepared annually at Lake Olomega. The consumer generally fries them in oil for eating.

30 Individual fishermen may sell $240 to $320 worth of bagre in a year.

31 Monterosa A. interview. Lin, pp. 14, 20.

32 Lin, pp. 20, 27. Cerrato V. interview.

33 Among the introduced fish are the common carp (Cyprinus carpió), the guapote of Managua (Cichhsoma managuense), the mojarra of Amatitlán (Cichlasoma guttulatum), lobina negra ﹛Micropterus salmoides), and Tilapia mossambica and Lepomis machrochirus. Federico García Prieto, “Informe de las labores realizadas por el poder ejecutivo en el ramo de Agricultura y Ganadería durante el período comprendido entre el 14 de Septiembre de 1957 y el 13 de Septiembre de 1958” (San Salvador: Ministerio de Agricultura y Ganadería, 3 Noviembre, 1958), p. 13.

34 Interview with S. Y. Lin, August 20, 1959.

35 The introduction of the black bass is considered to be ill-advised by some experts. The predatory fish produces very small poundage for the amount of basic foodstuffs present in the water. The introduction of the African Tilapia mossambica is considered to be even more injudicious. It has become a pest in certain parts of Asia where it has been introduced, and is not always considered to be a good foodfish. It is omnivorous, breeds with great rapidity, and can exist in either salt or fresh water. It invariably escapes from ponds, spreads rapidly, and replaces many native foodfishes. Communication from Dr. George S. Myers, Stanford University, California, February 15, 1960.