Fisheries Research 164 (2015) 254–265 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Fisheries Research j ourna l ho me pa ge: www.elsevier.com/locate/fishres A comparison of fishing activities between two coastal communities within a biosphere reserve in the Upper Gulf of California Brad Erisman a,∗ , Ismael Mascare ˜ nas-Osorio b , Catalina López-Sagástegui c , Marcia Moreno-Báez d , Victoria Jiménez-Esquivel b , Octavio Aburto-Oropeza d a University of Texas at Austin, Marine Science Institute, Port Aransas, TX 78373-1015, USA b Centro para la Biodiversidad Marina y la Conservación A.C., La Paz, BCS 23090, México c UC MEXUS, University of California Riverside, CA 92521, USA d Marine Biology Research Division, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0202, USA a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 31 July 2014 Received in revised form 19 December 2014 Accepted 20 December 2014 Handling Editor A.E. Punt Keywords: Small-scale fisheries Collaborative fisheries research Upper Gulf of California Colorado River Delta Marine protected areas a b s t r a c t We engaged in collaborative research with two small-scale fishing communities inside the Upper Gulf of California Biosphere Reserve in Mexico, San Felipe (SF) and El Golfo de Santa Clara (GSC), to test how well the geographic heterogeneity of fishing activities within the reserve coincided with current regulations. We compared the two communities in terms of catch composition, fishing effort, ex-vessel prices and rev- enues, seasonal patterns in fishing activities in relation to the reproductive seasons of target species, and spatial patterns of fishing in relation to managed zones within the reserve. The top four species (Cynoscion othonopterus, Micropogonias megalops, Scomberomorus concolor, Litopenaeus stylirostris) in terms of rel- ative effort, catch, and revenues were the same for both communities but overall fisheries production, effort, and revenues were higher in GSC than SF for these species. Fishing activities in GSC followed a predictable annual cycle that began with L. stylirostris and were followed sequentially by the harvesting of C. othonopterus, M. megalops, and S. concolor during their respective spawning seasons, which were associated with seasonal variations in ex-vessel prices. Conversely, catch and revenues in SF were more diversified, less dependent on those four species, less seasonal, and did not show seasonal variations in prices. Interactions between fisheries and managed zones also differed such that SF interacted mainly with the southwest portion of the vaquita (Phocoena sinus) refuge, whereas GSC fished over a larger area and interacted mainly with the northeast portion of the vaquita refuge and the no-take zone. Our results indicate the two communities differ markedly in their socio-economic dependence on fisheries, their spatio-temporal patterns of fishing, their use of and impacts on species, coastal ecosystems and man- aged areas, and how different regulations may affect livelihoods. Regional management and conservation efforts should account for these differences to ensure the protection of endangered species and to sustain ecosystem services that maintain livelihoods and healthy coastal ecosystems. This study provides fur- ther evidence of the ability of collaborative research between scientists and fishers to produce robust and fine-scale fisheries and biological information that improves the collective knowledge and management of small-scale fisheries within marine protected areas. © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Commercial fisheries are essential to the livelihood, welfare, and food security of coastal communities, and more than 90% of the ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 361 749 6833; fax: +1 361 749 6777. E-mail addresses: berisman@utexas.edu (B. Erisman), ismael.mascarenas@gocmarineprogram.org (I. Mascare ˜ nas-Osorio), catalina@ucr.edu (C. López-Sagástegui), mmorenobaez@ucsd.edu (M. Moreno-Báez), victoria.jimenez@gocmarineprogram.org (V. Jiménez-Esquivel), maburto@ucsd.edu (O. Aburto-Oropeza). world’s fishers are employed in small-scale fisheries (Chuenpagdee et al., 2006; FAO, 2012; Teh and Sumaila, 2013). However, small- scale fisheries can be more difficult to manage than industrial (large-scale) fisheries, because they often lack sufficient or reli- able data related to effort, catch, discard rates, the biology of target species, and other information necessary to assess stocks and set regulations (Johannes, 1998; Salas et al., 2007). Moreover, fisheries information is usually available only on coarse spatial and tempo- ral scales that do not always correspond to the demographics or life history characteristics of fish stocks or the dynamics of small- scale fisheries that target them (Tzanatos et al., 2005; Erisman et al., 2011; Wilson et al., 2012). Understanding spatial and temporal http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fishres.2014.12.011 0165-7836/© 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.