To try to guarantee that the agreements are fulfilled, at the mouth of the wetland complex there is a station in which members of the 22 communities rotate every fifteen days to check the meshes that the fishermen use to catch the fish, the engine of the rafts, as well as the species they fish.
For the lookout Juan Ahue Cuello, from Puerto Esperanza, complying with the agreements also brings benefits “for those who come behind: the grandchildren and great-grandchildren. We as lookouts are contributing so that the fish continue to reproduce; If not, we will be left with nothing.”
The lookouts from the 22 communities of the Ticoya Reservation rotate at the station every two weeks.
Although the agreements have served to recover populations of species, as pointed out by the lookout Gabriel Ahue Gómez, from the community of Santa Clara de Tarapoto, there are disagreements between the communities because some fishermen do not comply with the allowed mesh size (greater than three inches). ) and use two inches.
Santa Clara is the community in which fishermen comply least with agreements. They are closer to the main lake and do not care much about following the rules of other communities from the same reservation that come to “their” lake.
“The fishermen do not agree. I would like there to not even be meshes in summer,” says Jerónimo, especially in cases like last year, when the dry period was prolonged.
For Fernando Trujillo, scientific director of the Omacha Foundation and who was chosen as Explorer of the Year by National Geographic, there are two key problems: that those who fail to comply with the agreements do not receive any type of sanction and that the majority of lookouts “are older people and, Unfortunately, they do not have much authority” between the fishermen and the reservation authorities who do not recognize the agreements.
The problems between the fishermen and the lookouts occur especially in summer because, as Trujillo explains, that is when there is a greater concentration of fish, while in other periods “the fishermen can spend the whole night and with luck catch a string.”
Another point of contention is the canoes, which can only have a small motor, called “pkpk horsepower 5.5”, and travel less than 5km, to avoid hurting the fish and dolphins with the blades or affecting them with the noise. It is a rule that, according to the lookouts, some of the operator boats that carry tourists do not know or comply with.
It is paradoxical: dolphin watching is one of the main interests of tourists who come to Lagos de Tarapoto, but, according to data from the Omacha Foundation, the populations of pink dolphins have decreased by 52% and those of gray dolphins by 37%. % in the last 30 years in the Amazon Trapeze (the southern end of the department).
“This happens in an area where there is driving. In the others where there is not one, the situation is surely worse,” Trujillo points out.
