Tenacatita is a fishing village . . .

Tenacatita is a real Mexican fishing village, but it is also a tourist destination. Summer is peak tourist season when Mexicans take their vacation. Families and young adults from surrounding cities and from Guadalajara come to Tenacatita for vacation. Tourists from British Columbia dominate the scene during the winter months. Tenacatita itself consists mostly of beach front restaurants, which cater to tourists, and the local fishermen supply the restaurants with fish which is the main fare in Tenacatita. The fishermen follow a fishing schedule based on the peak and flow of tourists. Monday through most of Thursday they lay low. At sunset on Thursday they set their nets in anticipation of the arrival of tourists and they fish hard Friday through Saturday to feed the tourists. If it is a holiday, which are common in Mexico, the fisherman work everyday as long as there are tourist around. In the summer they work every day.

I've seen the catch of the local fishermen, so I know there are a diversity of fish in the waters in front of our house. They catch red snapper and other snapper species, Jack Crevalle, snook, and sierra mackerel. Sometimes they catch some strange unidentifiable fish that look like they are straight from a horror film. In Tenacatita there are a number of local fishermen that provide fish to the beach restaurants, and they fish using nets set from small motorized boats called pangas. The nets are about 300 ft. long and are set close to shore or along the rock outcrops that separate Tenacatita Bay from the Pacific Ocean. From our house we see the fishing boats on the water at sunset and sunrise with the fishermen setting their nets at sunset and pulling them in at sunrise.