Uncertainties of commercial fishing to be explored today

Apr 02, 2009 News

The uncertainties surrounding the future of sustainable commercial fishing in the Caribbean region will be explored today, when the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM), in collaboration with the Caricom Secretariat hosts a discussion on ‘Caribbean Fisheries: Sinking or Swimming in Uncertain Waters’.
The public discussion, which will take place at the Secretariat, will draw on expert insight from a number of stakeholders in the local fishing industry.
These include Leslie Ramalho of the Guyana Fisheries Advisory Committee, and consultant Rueben Charles, as well as Milton Haughton, Deputy Executive Director of the CRFM.
Issues such as whether there is the shared political will to finalise the Common Fisheries Policy and Regime; whether fishers have enough say in regional fisheries management; whether regional politicians take the fisheries sector seriously; and whether there can be large scale collaboration between regional fishers are among those topics the panelists will tackle.
During September last year, the Sea Food Trawlers and Processors’ Association had disputes with the recommended techniques in ensuring the sustainable management of Guyana’s seabob resources.
The recommendation by the Caribbean Regional Fishery Network, as well as that of other experts, is that Guyana should reduce the fleet of vessels that is exploiting the commodity while at the same time changing the closing season for harvesting from September to May.
Each year during September, no seabob harvesting is allowed in Guyana’s waters.
However, according to the experts, it would be better to change the harvesting period to May of each year.
Chairman of the Sea Food Trawlers and Processors’ Association, Bruce Vieira, had said that while the association was willing to abide by some reduction and some measures to enable the seabob population to remain sustainable, the recommendations by the experts are ‘far too drastic.’ Over the past year measures have been examined to determine how the seabob resources can be managed and utilised in a sustainable manner.
The Fisheries Department within the Ministry of Agriculture had examined data, which was provided by the industry.
One of the difficulties that the department encountered, however, was the fact that the information was not accurate enough to make a final verdict on the issue.
In Guyana, there are about 103 vessels that harvest seabob.
This industry contributes at least US$5M to Guyana’s Gross Domestic Product each year.

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Uncertainties of commercial fishing to be explored today

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