The emergence of the “narco-fishmongers” in the Gulf of California, also known as the Sea of Cortez, has resulted in environmental crises, socioeconomic transformations, and the expansion of organized crime in one of Mexico’s most sensitive regions.
Totoaba fishing, historically fundamental to local subsistence, has become the cornerstone of an international illegal trafficking network, involving Mexican cartels and Chinese mafias.
This has had direct consequences for biodiversity and the security of local communities. Alejandro Bonada Chavarría documents this in his article in HALAC – Latin American and Caribbean Environmental History, which reconstructs the historical and social processes behind this phenomenon.
The turning point came between 2012 and 2013, when the totoaba swim bladder trade, highly valued in the Asian market for its purported aphrodisiac and medicinal properties, attracted the attention of the Sinaloa Cartel and Chinese criminal networks.
The extinction of the bahaba in China, a species similar to the totoaba, triggered a surge in demand and prices: a kilogram of swim bladder could fetch up to $160,000 in Hong Kong, according to figures compiled by HALAC.
