Q&A with fisher Gustavo Rosales

Attracted by bait, sea turtles off the coast of southern Peru often get caught on fishing hooks intended for mahi-mahi. Releasing the turtles is complicated as they’re heavy animals, and some try to defend themselves from humans by flapping their flippers and biting.

“It gives me great satisfaction to release them,” says Gustavo Rosales, a fisher from the city of Ilo. “If it weren’t for the turtles, there would be no balance. Everything is in a chain.”

Rosales is one of 4,472 Peruvian fishers who have been trained by the government in best practices for releasing turtles, seabirds and other animals unintentionally caught by fishing gear, better known as bycatch.

The training workshops, held along the country’s coastline, began in 2022 to implement a regulation aimed at the mahi-mahi (Coryphaena hippurus) fishery. The regulation requires that at least one crew member per boat has obtained a training certificate.

Jesús Nieves, general director of technical development and training in artisanal fishing at the National Fund for Fisheries Development (FONDEPES), says there are approximately 4,500 fishing boats targeting mahi-mahi, with about one trained crew member per boat at present. The goal is to reach 10,000 trained fishers, so the workshops are ongoing.

Rosales says the training not only raises awareness among fishers who aren’t used to freeing turtles from hooks, but also helps prevent the turtles from injuring fishers. Boats are now required to carry tools for freeing turtles, such as nets to safely bring them on board, as well as shears and pliers for cutting and removing hooks.

Mongabay Latam spoke with Rosales to learn about his mahi-mahi fishing routine and how fishers deal with releasing sea turtles. This interview has been translated from Spanish and edited for length and clarity.

Mongabay: How do you prepare before going out to sea?

Gustavo Rosales: Before heading out to sea, we make and store ice, depending on the boat’s capacity. The minimum capacity here in the south for mahi-mahi fishing is 5 [metric] tons, and the maximum is 15. We load up on fuel. We leave everything at the anchorage. The four crew members go to the market to stock up on supplies. Depending on what we’re going to eat, we buy the right amount of potatoes or rice.

With everything ready, we travel about 150 or 200 miles [240 or 320 kilometers] out from the port. It’s a two-day journey out and takes up to two and a half days to return. And we work for 10 days. We set the hooks every day.

Mongabay: Why do you go so far out to sea?

Gustavo Rosales: Within 100 miles [160 km from shore], there are a lot of sea lions [Otaria flavescens], and they cause us problems because they eat the fish. When the hooks are being thrown, the mahi-mahi start biting. By the time we catch the fish, the sea lions come and bite the mahi-mahi’s belly; they don’t eat the whole thing. They go from one mahi-mahi to the next, biting their bellies. Fish that have been bitten are no longer good because they won’t be bought here in the south.

We have to speed up the machine to lift the fishing gear quickly and load whole fish onto the boat before returning to port.

So, we go out 100 miles, where there aren’t many sea lions. There are some, but [there are mainly] fur seals [Arctocephalus australis]. They only eat one or two mahi-mahi, nothing else, and the rest of the fish are left for us.

Mongabay: Once you’re out at sea, what’s your mahi-mahi fishing routine like?

Gustavo Rosales: When at sea, we get up at 5 in the morning. We start getting things ready, including the marker flags. We catch tropical two-wing flying fish [Exocoetus volitans] and hook them through the back. Then [the hooks are] cast into the sea so the mahi-mahi will bite, and every five hooks we place a flag. We finish at 2 in the afternoon. Then we sail back to the first flag and start hauling in the gear, the flag, and we fish as we go on. On each trip, about four turtles are caught on the hooks, mostly loggerhead [Caretta caretta] and green [Chelonia mydas] turtles.

Mongabay: Why do the turtles get caught?

Gustavo Rosales: Sometimes they’re attracted to the bait, like the tropical two-wing flying fish or squid. What I’ve seen is that they either eat the bait, or since they’re swimming around, get their flippers caught on the hooks.

Loggerhead, green and hawksbill turtles [Eretmochelys imbricata] have all gotten caught, and I’ve also caught a leatherback turtle [Dermochelys coriacea] twice. The truth is, I couldn’t pull it onto the boat on my own because it weighed over 100 kilos [220 pounds]. We pulled it onto the boat, then removed the hook and set it free. On another occasion, when a leatherback turtle got caught, we couldn’t pull it onto the boat, but the turtle let us help it, and we set it free.

Other species of turtle weigh around 40 kilos [88 lbs], and some weigh a little less. Although they look small, they’re heavy.

Mongabay: Before the workshops, what did you do when you found turtles?

Gustavo Rosales: Here in the south, we’ve always released turtles. We used to bring them onto the boat, but by hand. We would remove the hooks with a thick rope called a driza, using that to pull against the hook to get it out. It was a bit rough, but it came out. We’ve now been given some tools as part of the training, and we use cutting pliers.

Mongabay: What else has changed with the training?

Gustavo Rosales: If there are turtles, we bring them onto the boat using a fishing net, or rather, a hoop net. The next step is to find where the hook is stuck so we can free the turtle without harming it. We cut the hook and then clean the turtle’s shell, because carnivorous mollusks cling to that part of the turtle and can harm it. Then we stop the boat and release the turtle. They swim away safely.

Mongabay: How do the turtles react when you try to help them?

Gustavo Rosales: The leatherback sea turtle is gentle. It lets us help because it knows that we’re helping it. It does flap its flippers a little, as does the hawksbill, which doesn’t want to let us help. The hawksbill will keep flapping its flippers and wants to bite. Before the training, one bit my friend, cutting his finger. We put a tourniquet on him and then put some powder that I’d bought onto the area to stop the bleeding. As we were in our last few days we had to keep working, and my friend focused on steering the boat. When we got back to land, he went to a health care facility and they amputated his finger. The new tools are helping to prevent such accidents.

Mongabay: Have you and your colleagues received such training, and what do you think about it?

Gustavo Rosales: Here in Ilo there was interest in the training from the start. Although it was a bit complicated because we practiced with hooks in pork. But they’ve adapted. Every boat has its own tools because we realized they’re more useful for releasing turtles.

Mongabay: What needs to be changed or improved to ensure fishery resources are sustained?

Gustavo Rosales: I think more training is needed to make people aware, and showing videos so that fishers understand what could happen if resources are depleted due to poor practices.

By imposing sanctions and fines, the authorities would be putting pressure on fishers, and they would oppose it because they already attempted it here once and it didn’t work.

Mongabay: Have Peruvian fisheries declined?

Gustavo Rosales: For years the mahi-mahi was the largest. I’m 1.73 meters [5.7 feet] tall, and the mahi-mahi were my size. Some would be 2 meters [6.6 ft]. But the fish are smaller now, reaching only 1.5 meters [5 ft], or even just 1 meter [3.3 ft]. They aren’t growing like they used to. I don’t know why. Perhaps because there are too many boats in Peru?

Mongabay: What are fishers doing to protect the sea?

Gustavo Rosales: We’re being more closely monitored for things such as fishing catches, and they also ask for our coordinates. Before, throwing trash into the sea used to be normal, but that’s not the case anymore. Now, we have to take a bag with us and when we get to port we’re checked. They ask to see the trash bag.

Mongabay: What measures should the government take?

Gustavo Rosales: I think what’s missing here is that fishing needs to be valued like it is in other countries. What we do here is fish more to earn more, but ultimately fishing isn’t worth much and the government supports industrial companies more and not small-scale ones. There is a significant lack of support.

Mongabay: Is the life of a fisher demanding?

Gustavo Rosales: When I was young, I worked all year round. But in my 40s or a little younger, I started trying to rest a bit more because it was extremely demanding.

At sea, we risk engine failure, for example. Or being hit by another boat. There have been boat accidents in which small-scale fishing boats have been hit.

I think I’ll work a few more years and then dedicate my time to something else. I’d continue, but sometimes we fishers miss out on other things, such as time with family. When your children are grown up you don’t get to share their experiences with them.

Mongabay: What does the sea mean to you?

Gustavo Rosales: The first times I went out to sea, the first thing that amazed me were the dolphins and the whales. A few years ago, a sperm whale [Physeter macrocephalus] crashed into the boat because its tail got caught and the whale was upset. It was underneath the boat and started to bump us with its back. I’ve seen a lot of things I can’t explain, I’m left wondering what those things were.

I’ve been going out to sea as long as I can remember because my father has been a diver since he was 16. So I’ve always been going to sea; I’ve always enjoyed it. When I’m on land, I wish I was at sea.

Banner image: Fishermen free a sea turtle. Image courtesy of FONDEPES.

This story was first published here in Spanish on May 4, 2025.