The transformation that fishermen and their families have undergone since 2011 in El Manglito has manifested itself in many ways, one of which is represented by a fishmonger where they market the products they extract from the sea.

Ramón Antonio Ángel Méndez is general manager of Fishermen's Organization Rescuing the Inlet (OPRE) and was in charge of coordinating the project to start a fish market, an idea that had been in the fishermen's minds for many years, but which they believed they could make a reality.

A project that goes hand in hand with NOS

In 2011, when NOS Sustainable Northwest reached out to families in the neighborhood El Manglitoin La PazGradually, a different way of seeing and doing things emerged. In those years, the predominant illegal fishingThis led to the collapse of the fisheries on which the community subsisted.

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With the project for the restoration of the Ensenada de La Paz initiated that change that has driven the El Manglito to embrace the different ideas that have been undertaken since then.

Already organized as OPRE and with the fishery in order, one of those ideas was to establish its own fishmongersays Ramón Ángel.

"We started with the objective of having another source of income for the organization, because we are only working with scallops and oyster farming, so we came up with project ideas to have another source of income," he says.

This idea was presented to NOSbecause it was something that would give fishermen more stability, he says.

"The idea was there a long time ago, but we never sat down to do it, it was just the idea, but we started last year (2022) in November. In November and December we were working on the project and then we started working on it in May of last year (2023)," he said.

The support of NOS was not only through trainings for the members of OPREThe company was not only the institution that was pleased to participate in this project, but also the institution that provided the financial funds, explains Ángel Méndez.

It has not been easy, but they have faith in the project.

In May 2023 was when the OPRE Fish Market opened its doors to the public, in a store located on the corner of Legaspy and Marcelo Rubioat the Center for La Paz.

These first few months have not been easy for this enterprise, but NOS has not let them off the hook, and they have faith that it will prosper, says the general manager of OPRE.

"Since it is a project that is just starting, we are just getting clients, not all businesses work overnight and we are in this process right now. We do believe it will work, but it takes time," he says.

Ramón Ángel is optimistic about the start of the season of Lent and later the arrival of EasterThis is the first high season that they will experience with this venture in which everyone involved contributes.

"The project looks good, everyone is working hard, coming up with ideas, what we do, what we don't do or what is missing. There is no lack of desire, there is plenty of desire, but the detail is that it is only just in process," he insists.

The hallmark of the company is sustainable fishing.

Ramón Ángel Méndez is very emphatic when it mentions what distinguishes OPRE Fish Market of other establishments in the same line of business: the sustainable fishing.

The idea of having this business was always to be a marketing channel for the products that the fishermen themselves from OPRE and even sell products from external cooperatives that have concessions.

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Among the products they offer to their customers, depending on the season, are the shrimp, tuna medallion, smoked marlin, smoked tuna, cabrilla, snapper, cochito, horse mackerel, soleamong others, he details.

"We always try to keep the fish up to date so that it is always fresh, all fresh, and since we have the concession for hatchet callus, obviously we want to sell it when it is in season and the important thing for us is that it is not a callus like any other, our callus has a history, the callus we want to sell there in the fish market is sustainable fishing," he stresses.

The products of OPRE that sell in the fishmonger have behind them that history of effort and transformation of the community itself that has turned them into sustainable fishermenThe company's sales are guaranteed to be from other organizations. legal fishing.