Stuart Roger Fulton, Mexico
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Stuart Roger Fulton
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2019 Article "Untapped Potential of Citizen Science in Mexican Small-Scale Fisheries" "Citizen science is a rapidly growing field with well-designed and run citizen science projects providing substantial benefits for conservation and management. Marine citizen science presents a unique set of challenges and lags behind terrestrial citizen science, but also provides significant opportunities to work in data-poor fisheries."
2019 Status: Researchgate Profile: Stuart Fulton Comunidad y Biodiversidad A.C. | COBI Master of Science
2016 Youtube Interview on transdisciplinary Research "Stuart Fulton works for Comunidad Y Biodiversidad Asociacion (COBI) in Quintana Roo, Mexico. COBI is a non-profit, NGO working toward promoting conservation of marine biodiversity in coastal communities. Stuart speaks about the transdisciplinary experience and the 2016 Merida workshop from an NGO point of view."
2015 Conference Paper: "Prediction and Verification of Fish Spawning Aggregation Sites in Mexico" * Presenter: Stuart Fulton, Mexico Comunidad y 
Biodiversidad A.C. (COBI)
Many fish species, including groupers and snappers, aggregate in large schools to spawn. Fishers are often the first to discover these spawning sites, but targeted fishing of spawning aggregations often leads to stock overexploitation. Studies have found that spawning aggregations often occur at geomorphologically similar areas such as underwater promontories. Building on fishers´ traditional ecological knowledge, we have trained fishers to complete bathymetric surveys and underwater visual censuses with SCUBA to document and monitor the health of the spawning aggregations in three fishing communities in the Sian Ka´an Biosphere Reserve, Mexico. In collaboration with fishers, we then proposed the establishment of no take zones to protect the sites from further exploitation. This study highlights the importance of stakeholder involvement in conservation projects and highlights the predictability of multi-species fish spawning aggregations sites using bathymetric mapping techniques.
2015 Conference Video -mp4 (274mb)
2015 Profile: Organization: Comunidad y Biodiversidad A.C. (COBI)
*-Organization full street address (in your local format): Isla del Peruano 215, Lomas de Miramar, Guaymas, Sonora, CP 85448
*-Organization full mailing address, if different:
*-Country: Mexico
*-Work phone with country and area code: +52 622 222 4990
*-Work fax with country and area code: n/a
*-Main email: cobi@cobi.org.mx
*-Organization Web site URL if any: www.cobi.org.mx
*-Organization subject keywords (please see instructions): biodiversity, conservation, coast, fish, marine, monitoring, protected areas, sustainable fisheries.
describe the work that your current conservation gis work: Comunidad y Biodiversidad A.C: (COBI – www.cobi.org.mx) is a non-profit 
organization dedicated to promoting the conservation of marine biodiversity in coastal communities throughout Mexico. COBI works in close collaboration with communities to promote public participation in order to take decision on how best to manage coastal resources. Community marine reserves are the main tool used by COBI however a range of associated programs are also promoted to ensure sustainable fisheries, promote sustainable livelihoods and empower the fishers. As a consequence of working with marine resource users in my role at COBI, I have developed a strong interest in marine spatial planning. This is a field that I think would not only benefit me personally, but also the work that COBI conducts in the Marine Reserve Program both along the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef and also in our other areas of work throughout Mexico. I believe the next logical step after the creation of no-take zones to promote sustainable fisheries is to account for all marine resources users, particularly important in the area where we work as it is Mexico´s main tourism destination and resource conflicts exist. I would like to pursue this goal by gaining knowledge and experience in curating GIS data for spatial analysis in ArcGIS models or third-party software such as Marxan. Using participatory GIS (such as SeaSketch which I looked at recently) to map fishers´ traditional ecological knowledge would assist the work we are about to begin in the north of Quintana Roo where there are many fishers, many cooperatives and where the fishing grounds are mixed. In a conference in 2013 I learnt about the Sustainable Grenadines Project (http://www.grenadinesmarsis.com/) and the study by Aswani and Lauer in 2006 (Incorporating Fishermen´s Local Knowledge and Behavior into Geographical Information Systems for Designing Marine Protected Areas in Oceana), both great examples of the potential benefits of this kind of work
The Mission of COBI is: To promote the conservation of coastal and marine biodiversity through community participation.
The Vision:To be the leading non-profit organization in Mexico, which promotes and strengthens prosperous and responsible coastal communities to take care of their seas and coasts.
COBI was founded in 1999 in Guaymas, Sonora to promote the management of natural resources and coastal marine conservation in the Midriff Islands region of the Gulf of California. COBI currently has offices in La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico City and the most recent in Puerto Morelos, Quintana Roo which has been operating since 2008. We currently have 28 staff spread amongst the four offices, including admin staff. As I mentioned previously COBI is currently undergoing a national reorganization and from this year will no long operate along regional lines. The new program will focus on four key areas: Marine reserves; Sustainable fisheries; Capacity building with fishing cooperatives; and Public policy. The creation of no-take zones implies an opportunity cost to fishermen. To put it simply, they lose areas of their fishing grounds. COBI works with the fishing communities to allow conservation to be profitable and to improve the livelihoods of the fishers. This is mostly achieved by a combination of four methods. Firstly, territorial use rights are promoted. Fishers or fishing cooperatives that have exclusive use to fishing areas will tend to care for their fishing grounds, reducing the tragedy of the commons commonly seen when fishing grounds are open to all. Secondly eco-certification and market opportunities are promoted. The lobster fishery of the south of Quintana Roo was certified by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) in 2012 as sustainable. This recognizes sustainable fishing practices and can lead to a higher market price. In other parts of Mexico, COBI has been involved in the MSC certification for Pacific lobster and Gulf of California Sardine fisheries. Thirdly, COBI has worked directly with fishing cooperatives to improve their business practices. This leads to more efficient market practices and results in improved income for the fishers. Finally community-led surveillance is promoted to protect exclusive use fishing grounds and prevent illegal fishing. Fishers are trained in surveillance techniques, fisheries law and in some cases we have been able to find funds to buy surveillance boats. When the fisheries operate in Marine Protected Areas COBI also helps the under-funded National Park Authorities improve their surveillance programs
Please describe your personal role in the organization: I began working with COBI as a field assistant in 2011 before progressing to Field Coordinator in 2012. Due to recent internal restructuring I am currently Head of Marine Reserve Program, Mesoamerican Reef, although my job description remains the same. I am currently responsible for all activities related to our fish refuge (no take zone) and fish spawning aggregation site programs. Both programs involve long periods of fieldwork and extensive community involvement in which we train fishers to conduct underwater biological surveys to assess coral reef health and fish populations. I entered COBI just as the fish refuge program was reaching its implementation stage, and was responsible for collecting the final coordinates of the no take zones before the proposals were submitted to the government. As a SCUBA instructor, I trained the first group of fishers to dive and complete biological surveys, on a personal level I take great pride in seeing these fishers becoming highly competent in collecting biological data and also getting a deeper understanding of their fish stocks and the impact of fishing. This year (2015) we will collect the third year of data for the sites. Many sites are showing impressive biological recovery, especially for commercial fish and lobster.
As I have gained more experience in COBI I have become more involved in proposal writing and fund raising, although the majority of my time is still dedicated to fieldwork and relations with the fishers and fishing cooperatives. The recent reorganization of COBI along national lines is creating exciting new opportunities for collaboration with colleagues from our offices in Baja California and Sonora.
On a personal note, the fishing spawning aggregation project is now bearing fruit. The first ever protection of a fish spawning aggregation site under the new fish refuge legal tool in September 2013 in the Sian Ka´an Biosphere Reserve was a big highlight, and even more so when our monitoring program during the grouper reproductive season of 2014 showed that we had not only protected the spawning site of the endangered Nassau Grouper (Epinephelus striatus) which we knew was there, but also one of the Yellowfin Grouper (Mycteroperca venenosa) which not even the fishers knew about. And just this month (February 2015) we trained our first team of divers in Punta Allen, another fishing village in Sian Ka’an, and were able to document a spawning site with over 1,000 Nassau Grouper. A spectacular site and of upmost importance for conservation.
Please describe the history of your personal work in conservation and GIS: I began SCUBA diving at age 13 in the United Kingdom. Now that I almost exclusively dive in the warm Caribbean Sea it’s hard to explain why diving in cold, muddy, zero visibility English waters drove me to be interested in the sea! I studied Oceanography to Masters level at Southampton University, UK, and during my time at university I took advantage of my qualification as a diving instructor to work on conservation projects both in the UK with the university, and in Honduras with Operation Wallacea, a marine conservation NGO. In both areas my work mainly involved data or specimen collection for subsequent analysis.
In 2008 I arrived in Mexico to work with Global Vision International on their marine conservation projects on the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef. It was here, working with international and Mexican volunteers and directly with the local communities that I began to understand the wider implications of conservation work. I began to see the importance of not only collecting data but ensuring that the data was used to benefit local communities, especially those who operated sustainably. After taking a GIS course run by John Schaeffer of JuniperGIS in 2009 I was able to use basic GIS to document the invasion of the invasive Lionfish that arrived in the Mexican Caribbean. However it was until I entered COBI in 2011 that I began to make use of GIS for conservation planning on a more regular basis. Luckily COBI was in the position to make use the basic GIS skills I had to support its projects, and I was afforded the time to learn how to conduct new analyses (via online courses or through consultants) when needed. My current work has created my interest in marine spatial planning and participatory GIS – where we work with fishers’ traditional ecological knowledge to better understand potential areas of importance for protection.
It has only recently dawned on me that, basically, I love maps. As a child I would happily sit and read atlases for hours. The best book I read this year was On the Map: A Mind Expanding Exploration of the Way the World Looks, by Simon Garfield. It was whilst I was reading this book that I realized that for GIS, above it is the cartography that draws my attention.
Please describe what is the most unique and the most challenging about the conservation/GIS work that you do: The most unique part of my work, and occasionally the most challenging, is working directly with the fishing communities. COBI´s working model involves consulting fishermen at every stage of the conservation process and then training them to take part in conservation measures. This is unique in Mexico and involves developing strong relationships with the communities.
The awareness and understanding the fishers have of their fishing grounds is exceptional, and is one of the key reasons why I think having strong participatory GIS skills would be highly beneficial. After we had already found one of the grouper spawning aggregation sites by mapping, a fisher who used to fish grouper but now mostly catches lobster, approached us to ask if he could share his fishing ground information and join the monitoring effort. He said he knew a good grouper fishing spot and that he had marked it in his GPS. He said he hadn’t fished it for 8 years. When I loaded the data into ArcGIS I found his point to be 28 metres from the point we had been diving! And amazing lesson in the ecological knowledge of the small-scale fishers. If only we had approached him sooner!
One of the more challenging aspects of working with the fishers is try to change the perception of some of the older generations. Some of the older fishers were founding members of the fishing cooperatives and were lucky enough to have seen a relatively pristine ecosystem before overfishing, the massive coral die-off of the 1980´s, and recent effects of El Niño and higher sea temperatures have affected the fishery and health of the reef. They are however more reluctant to change their fishing habits and practices than the younger generations and, understandably, are sometimes less willing to support conservation efforts as they feel they will not receive the benefits of higher fish stocks in the future. This is where we have to look for ways for the entire community to benefit from conservation efforts. Whilst marking the no take zones we came across this problem. Many old timers were not happy with the limits and we ended up remarking one of the sites about 5 times until we got a general agreement. But it was worth the effort
Map Application screenshot of storymap created by Mr Fulton during the 2015 UC Davis-SCGIS Web GIS Training 
