Elasmobranch artisanal fisheries as part of a complex fisheries system in the southern Gulf of Mexico

The objective of this study was to show that elasmobranch fisheries from southern Gulf of Mexico are included within complex fishery systems, and that the use of the Social-Ecological Systems (sse) framework can assess those fishery systems. The heterogeneity of the small-scale fisheries in southern Gulf of Mexico, related to the seasonal importance changes of the fishery resources and the fleet dynamic, generates the necessity for the use of integral frameworks (such as the sse framework), to analyze interactions between social and ecological dimensions. This study demonstrates that the regional delimitation is possible to identify sse considering political and biophysical boundaries, as well as the fishing resources and fishing fleet dynamics. Based on the results, we consider that the more feasible delimitation to assess and implement sse is at the state level (scenario 1, with three sse: Tabasco, Campeche and Yucatan), or the one that considered the main fishing resources (scenario 4, with seven sse). In both scenarios, elasmobranchs play an important role in some sse. The generation and comprehensive compilation of data to characterize sse will allow determining in future studies which scenario is more appropriate not only in terms of assessment, but also with regard to the implementation of fishery management