Collaborative Research and Monitoring
“The ultimate aim of CEDO’s research and monitoring program is to generate and integrate science into decisions that foster greater harmony between communities and ecosystems”
~ Peggy Turk Boyer, Executive Director
CEDO builds concensus around common management goals and the indicators that measure ecological and socio-economic progress in achieving them and involves local stakeholders and partners to generate the needed information and evaluate progress. We maintain a comprehensive geo-referenced database and feed this information into ecosystem models to aid decision making for Fisheries Management, Biodiversity Conservation, and Ecosystem & Climate Change in four eco-regions in Mexico.
- Gulf of Ulloa, Mexican Pacific
- Upper Gulf of California (UNESCO Biosphere Reserve)
- Puerto Peñasco to Puerto Lobos Corridor, northern Gulf of California
- Gulf of Mexico
Research and monitoring is the foundation for establishing sustainable fisheries and for conserving species, habitats, and ecological processes. CEDO works in close collaboration with fishermen and other local actors to study catch, by-catch, and fishing effort, both in the northern Gulf of California and in the Mexican Pacific (Gulf of Ulloa).
In the Upper Gulf Biosphere Reserve, onboard monitoring programs were conducted as part of an Environmental Impact Study (EIA) implemented in collaboration with small-scale fishermen from 2010 to 2014. This effort aimed to mitigate impacts to the ecosystem such that sustainable, traditional fishing can continue to support communities in this area. The Upper Gulf Program also involves fishermen in developing and testing alternative gears that reduce overall bycatch, including critically endangered species such as the vaquita and the totoaba. The product of our collaborative fisheries research and monitoring program, is robust scientific data that can be used to improve, and eventually certify, sustainable fisheries.
Explore our fisheries research and monitoring work by program area:
The Peñasco-Lobos Corridor
- In-situ monitoring of benthic invertebrate
- Collaborative catch-monitoring
The Upper Gulf of California
- Fishing logbooks
- Onboard observations
- By-catch monitoring of commercial & endangered species, including Vaquita & totoaba in the Upper Gulf Biosphere Reserve
The Gulf of Ulloa
- Interactions between small-scale fishing vessels and loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) in the Gulf of Ulloa, a productivity hotspot in the MX Pacific
CEDO works with local communities to protect biodiversity by increasing awareness, monitoring species and habitats, and establishing effective conservation tools. CEDO’s priority ecosystems for biodiversity research and monitoring are wetlands and estuaries, the rocky intertidal zone, and the subtidal reefs and sandy/muddy bottom habitats of the northern Gulf of California.
In addition, a few flagship species such as the least tern (Sternula antillarium), California sea lion (Zalophus californianus), loggerhead and olive ridley sea turtles (Caretta caretta / Lepidochelys olivacea), vaquita (Phocoena sinus), and totoaba (Totoaba macdonaldi) have been the focus of this program. Other habitats, human impacts, and species (like sharks, whales, dolphins, gulls, seahorses and desert freshwater-fish) have also been studied.
Explore our biodiversity and conservation work by habitat or species:
- Wetland Estuaries / Esteros
- Offshore, subtidal and benthic (sea-bottom) ecosystems
- The rocky intertidal zone
- Isla San Jorge (sea lion colony and seabird nesting UNESCO protected area)
- The least tern (Sternula antillarum) nesting colonies of Puerto Peñasco
- Freshwater habitats of the Sonoran Desert
CEDO generates and shares scientific knowledge to support decision-making at every level of government. To better understand the impacts of climate change, we have applied software such as Invest, Zonation, and Atlantis, and used the resulting models to propose progressive management strategies for the northern Gulf of California and its surrounding ecosystems. These models are based on CEDO’s extensive geospatial database and are used to examine different management scenarios, incorporating key ecological processes such as the larval dispersion of commercial species under the impacts of global warming.
Explore our climate research and monitoring work by publication:
- Effects of increased ocean temperature and acidification on ecosystem processes and functions.
- Effectiveness of current marine reserves under future climate change.
- Effectiveness of different fisheries management instruments under future climate change.
- Vulnerability of coastal fishing communities to the impacts of climate change.