El Niño’s warm water hits Rosarito’s lobster fishers: up to 40% of the catch can’t be sold live

El Niño is squeezing the lobster fishers of Playas de Rosarito. Because the Pacific has warmed, 30% to 40% of their lobster can’t be sold live, the form that earns the best price, Baja California’s secretary of fisheries and aquaculture, Alma Rosa García Juárez, said in a Zeta report published Nov. 10. Lobsters held in sea cages, where the water is warmest, often reach the processing plant weak.

The price gap is wide. A kilo of live lobster can sell for about 45 dollars, while frozen lobster, which goes to the local market, brings 10 to 12 dollars less per kilo, according to Zeta’s report. Costs are up too: with the lobster moving to more distant fishing grounds, a fishing trip that cost about 2,000 pesos now runs 3,000 to 3,200. García Juárez said the season will be hard mainly because of prices rather than a lack of lobster, that the state hadn’t budgeted for the problem and that it is asking the federal government for help.

Rosarito’s fishery is small and long-established. It has 10 permit holders, about 64 registered boats and a little over 200 families, and has worked lobster, santoyo, oysters and sea urchin since the 1950s, Zeta reported from the city’s first fishers’ meeting, held Nov. 10. The city has handed out 28 equipment grants so far, including 3,500 pesos each to 13 fishers after a training session. Rosarito still has no port, landing area or boat ramp; councilor Alan Bautista Plascencia, who chairs the city’s fisheries commission, said a project for one is long-term and unlikely to be finished in this administration.

If you’re heading to Puerto Nuevo

• Lobster is the draw in Puerto Nuevo, Rosarito’s village of lobster restaurants; our new profile explains the fried, Puerto Nuevo-style plate.
• The report doesn’t say whether restaurant prices will change, so ask about the price and size of the lobster before you order.
• More ideas are in our seafood guide.