Actually the Mexican shriinp-fisheiy cooperatives are mostly 

 cooperatives in name only. Since only cooperative fishermen can catch 

 shrimp, practically the entire frozen-shrimp industry is supplied by 

 "white" 37/ cooperatives. Of the 8U cooperatives authorized to fish 

 for shrinp, probably no more than 20 operate as originally intended, 

 and these fish almost exclusively in inland waters. The trawling fleet, 

 which is prohibited by law from fishing in the estuaries, is manned 

 almost entirely by "white" cooperative fishermen. The exception to the 

 general rule so far as shrimp cooperatives are concerned occurs in 

 Guaymas where at least three cooperatives own and operate from one to 

 three trawl boats each. 



Mexican producers' cooperatives are organized into regional 

 federations and a national confederation. The functions of the federa- 

 tion are to represent the various affiliated cooperatives and to sell 

 and buy, in common, the products of and purchases for the member 

 cooperatives. The federation is composed of not more than three repre- 

 sentatives from each cooperative. The federations are regional and 

 are organized along product lines, that is, only fishery cooperatives 

 can belong to a fishery federation. 



The confederation is national and represents all producers' 

 federations regardless of the nature of their product. No federation 

 can have more than two representatives in the confederation. The con- 

 federation may also buy and sell, in common, the products of the federa- 

 tions . 



FISHING METHODS, VESSELS, AI\JD GEAR 



There are three general methods of fishing for shrimp in 

 Mexico: cast nets, "attarayas"; traps or vjeirs, "charangas," "tapos," 

 or "cierras"j and otter travels. 



Cast nets are used only in estuaries or bays and are generally 

 operated froiu dugouts, "canoas"; cast-net fishing is most prevalent on 

 the west coast of Mexico in the estuarine waters between Guaymas and 

 Mazatlan but is also done in the bays between Salina Cruz and the 

 Guatemalan border. 



37 / Common parlance uses "cooperativo rojo" (red cooperative) to mean 

 a cooperative that is legal with respect both to statute and to intentj 

 a "cooperativo bianco" (white cooperative) is legal with respect to 



statute only. 



89 



