Innovative group uses 'floating raft technique' to save critical ocean species from collapse: 'Our job is to protect our environment'

Over the past 50 years, the Marshes Biosphere Reserve in Nayarit in Western Mexico has recovered from a crisis caused by the overexploitation of the Cortez oyster to successfully reintroduce it into the ecosystem.

One of the key groups that played a role in bringing back the Cortez oyster was the Ostricamichin Cooperative, a fishing group dedicated to conservation. The cooperative has been helping to protect the Marshes Biosphere Reserve for decades. 

Mongabay reported that in 1970, the group's initiative collaborated with the government to enhance Cortez oyster farming by collecting juvenile oysters to grow on floating rafts. This floating raft technique has been so effective that oyster farmers have continued using it. 

Marcos Moreno Torres, a member of the Ostricamichin Cooperative since its inception, told Mongabay: "There came a time when climate conditions and overexploitation caused a decline, and by 1975, the oysters had completely disappeared. We endured five years of oyster crisis. But in 1980, we saw a record production, and from that point on, the project grew, ultimately saving the species."

The cooperative hasn't just saved the Cortez oyster from the brink of extinction, though. With raft farming stopping the overexploitation of the oysters and waters, other fish species in the area have been restored.

The president of the cooperative, Óscar Guadalupe Padilla Angulo, explained to Mongabay: "When you focus on farming, you forget about fishing, and only [fish] for self-consumption. This allows species like the sea bass and the snapper to recover, as they are no longer overexploited."

The Ostricamichin Cooperative also works not to exploit the marine ecosystems in which it farms oysters, ensuring that the delicate balance of these ecosystems remains intact. 

The cooperative's success in protecting its environment while still managing to boost the local economy and provide enough food for the community is an inspiration for other fishers and people whose jobs rely on the natural environment. 

"Our job is to protect our environment," Angulo told Mongabay.

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