The small gulf coast community of Bagdad Beach not only draws tourists, vacationers and beach-lovers, but its home to a very sizable community of commercial fishermen and their families, who call the windswept, sandy beach, home.  

Bagdad Beach is roughly divided into two sections, north and south, and each section only extends inland from the beach a couple of blocks.  At the terminus of Federal Highway 2, at the statue of Christopher Columbus, if you take a turn to the south, you'll see many small fish restaurants, and motels, but you'll also notice houses, tractors, pangas, and everything else that supports a commerical fishing community.  You've arrived at "South Bagdad Beach," which supports most of the commercial fishermen, and their families.

Left:  This fish restaurant not only is the home for a family of commercial fishermen, but its also a place where they display and sell their catch.  Right:  This place not only serves as home to several families, but also is a showcase for their taco stand, located in front of their home.

This is a year-around fishing community where whole families live, work and play.  Since this is the gulf coast, the threat of hurricanes is ever-present, so many of the dwellings and commercial structures are built on stilts, and are elevated 6 or 8 feet above the beach.  This strategy seems to work as of these buildings appear to have weathered many storms.  Many of these buildings serve as residences, as seen by the children playing outside, the laundry hanging from a clothes line, and the ever-present skinny dogs, who seem to be everywhere in rural, Mexican towns.

Left:  I found the blue-painted "restrooms" quite interesting, which are located at the end of this house that serves as home to a fisherman's family.  Right:  Fresh fish is displayed in front of one of the local seafood stands.

From talking to the locals, I found out that most commercial fishermen work six days a week, and they only take Sunday off. Note that I used the word fishermen, as the women, who are mostly housewives who stay at home, and take care of the children and run the households.  Playa Bagdad is a sandy beach, and it slopes very gradually into the Gulf of Mexico, therefore no piers will be found in the area, as the water just isn't deep enough.  All fishing is done by pangas, which are outboard-powered boats about 25 feet long, and they're crewed by 3 or 4 fishermen.  If you look out into the gulf to the east, you will see larger commercial fishing boats, but they call Possible or Tampico home, as there are no facilities at Bagdad Beach to support them.  

Photos:  Home, sweet home, to some of the fishermen who call Bagdad Beach home.

There are no docks or moors at Bagdad Beach to store the pangas, when they're not in use.  To store the boats, they are piloted as close to the shore as possible, and then dragged up onto the beach, away from the water, by a waiting tractor.  In the morning, when its time to launch the boats, a tractor simply drags a panga to the water, and two or three members of the crew climb aboard.  The last guy disengages the line from the tractor and pushes the boat into the water and climbs aboard, naturally sporting very wet legs and feet.  I'm assuming the "pusher" guy is the least senior man in the crew, but that's only a guess on my part.  To retrieve a boat it basically works in reverse, as when a loaded boat approaches shore, a tractor meets the boat.  Radios and other high-tech methods of communication are non-existent.  I asked one of the locals how the tractor operator knows when a boat is ready for assistance, and he replied that they "just know" as they can see the boat is lower to the water and therefore must be carrying a full load of fish.  Regardless of the method of communication, the tractor attaches a line to the boat and pulls it ashore.  By the way, this "catch and release" style of mooring is common in Mexico, as I've observed similar operations at San Felipe, Baja California.

Left:  A panga is parked on the beach, as seagulls clean up any scraps of fish deposited on the beach.  Note the fleet of shrimp boats in the distance.  There is no doubt that this panga belongs to Mexico, as shown by the Mexican flags, proudly flying from the boat.  Right:  A panga comes ashore.

I was very curious about the economic arrangements, in regards to the tractors, as although these fishermen share a lot in common, they're all competitors, as each individual must sell his individual catch in order to be paid and earn a living.  There is a ratio of about 1 tractor to every 20 panga.  What I was told is that the tractor-guys are independent contractors and work on commission.  In other words, they are paid by the fishermen every time a boat is pulled, depending upon how much money the fisherman has, or how much he thinks he'll get from his catch.  It's a loose arrangement, but it seems to work, as all parties seem happy and by what I was able to observe, it works like a well-oiled machine.  Anyway, this is Playa Bagdad!

Left:  This tractor is dragging a panga ashore.  Right:  A tow strap is attatched to a panga, and attatched to a tractor, which will drag the boat on to the beach.

When the panga is at sea, the caught fish are stored in a well located in the center of the boat, but the cargo of caught fish isn't given any sort of refrigeration, even by ice cubes.  The boat is dragged by a tractor ashore, where there is a crew of men, and possibly a woman or two, who's job is to unload the cargo of caught fish and to help in the butchering of the fish.  The fish are off-loaded from the boat, and scaled, gutted and butchered on the spot, by the folks waiting on the beach.  In addition to the folks on the shore, the boat crew participates in this endeavor, as well as loading the catch onto a waiting truck, to be hauled away to a processing plant in Matamoros, to undergo further processing, packaging and to be distributed to other places in the country.  The discarded fish parts and entrails are discarded and left on the beach, to be consumed by the waiting armies of greedy seagulls and pelicans.

Left:  This tractor guy is dragging a panga ashore, and he receives a lot of help from his many friends.  Right:  These fishermen are in the process of getting their net ready for the next day of work.  I photographed these guys doing hard work "at the office."

If its still early in the day, the crew may go out again for another catch, and repeat the process again.  Whatever the results, there will be a tractor waiting on the beach, to assist the panga to "dry dock."

Shrimp is the favorite catch, as it seems to be the most in demand and therefore commands the highest price, but the fishermen also catch yellowtail, red snapper, flounder, tuna, shark and octopus.  If you watch the beach activity, you'll observe many entrepreneurs who are spending their time at the waters edge, digging clams, on the hopes of to sell to the push cart beach vendors who frequent the beach just to the north of the fishermen.

Left:  Mr. Tractor-guy looks over his shoulder to make shure that the panga that he's dragging onto the beach is in perfect alignment.  Right:  A fisherman gives his helper a grim look as he begins to unload his catch.

Left:  The hold in this panga is full of freshly caught yellowtail.  Right:  A fisherman butchers yellowtail and shark on the beach, at Bagdad Beach.

Playa Bagdad isn't just not all about fishermen, as many restaurants, puestas, and small food vendors line the shore.  We noticed fish being brought from a boat, dressed on-shore, and then taken to a food stand, and cooked within minutes.  If you like fresh fish, Playa Bagdad is the place to go, as the fish is just-taken-off-the-boat fresh, and that's the way fish should be, when its cooked.

Left:  When it comes to butchering fish, these fishermen take no prisoners.  Right:  This guy is bringing a couple of freshly caught fish to one of the many fish restaurants that line the beach.

The fishing community isn't just about fishermen, it's also about entrepreneurs, who offer all kinds of beach side services, including restrooms and showers.  The showers are quite interesting, as they're basically wood outhouse buildings, which offer basic protection from the elements and "lookey-loos," and little else, as most of them don't even sport plumbing.  For the sum of a couple of pesos, your shower consists of a rough, outhouse-like structure, and a bucket of tepid water, that you throw over your head to shower yourself.  That's it for your shower!  Oh boy!

Left:  Loading fish onto a truck, to trasport the catch to nearby Matamoros.  Right:  This girl plays with a freshly caught fish.  Shortly after this photo was taken, the fish was cleaned, scaled and taken to a nearby restuarant.

If you want to watch real, working commercial fishermen in action, you can't beat a place like Bagdad Beach, as it's the real thing, any way that you look at it.

 

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