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Guyana’s seabob catch decreasing since 2017 – FAO report
…says lack of action by Govt. reason for root cause not being identified
Kaieteur News – Since 2017, Guyana’s seabob (Xiphopenaeus kroyeri) catch has been declining. This information was revealed in the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN) summary report titled, “The seabob value chain in Guyana.”
The report was published in January 2023 and is based on “FISH4ACP” which is an initiative of the Organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) to support sustainable fisheries and aquaculture development. The five-year value chain (VC) development programme (2020 to 2025) is implemented by FAO with funding from the European Union and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.
A seabob market vendor (Picture taken from FAO report)
According to the report, the seabob shrimp value chain in Guyana is one of 12 value chains competitively selected from over 70 proposals worldwide for support from the FISH4ACP programme.
It was explained that the summary report presents the outputs of design work completed during 2021 and early 2022 to conclude a functional analysis of the value chain, assess its sustainability and resilience, develop an upgrading strategy to which the FISH4ACP programme will contribute, and plan for full implementation from mid2022.1
The FISH4ACP methodology used to carry out this study is an approach based on FAO’s Sustainable Food Value Chain and Agrinatura’s Value Chain Analysis for Development methodologies. It has four main components: functional analysis, sustainability assessment, upgrading strategy development, and implementation planning (actions and investments). The approach is highly participatory, involving VC stakeholders from the public and private sector from the outset in order to ensure national ownership of all four components, thereby increasing the likelihood of success of the project interventions.
For the functional analysis, it was disclosed that there are two channels in Guyana’s value chain; the export-oriented industrial channel and the artisanal channel.
It was explained that the industrial channel accounts for almost all (99 percent) the total seabob catch in Guyana, and is the larger of the two channels while the artisanal channel accounts for a mere 1 percent of total seabob catch.
“During 2015 to 2020, three industrial seabob firms in Guyana produced around 7 600 tonnes of peeled seabob per year (17 000 tonnes fresh, whole weight equivalent),” it was noted.
From this is was stated that about 93 percent was exported to markets in the United States of America (USA) and the European Union (EU) and 7 percent was sold to local supermarkets, hotels and restaurants.
For artisanal seabob catch, the 1 percent is around 180 tonnes per year, in fresh, whole weight equivalent. It was stated that the artisanal fishermen focuses on supplying the domestic market with fresh unpeeled seabob, fresh peeled seabob and dried seabob.
Importantly, it was highlighted that the total seabob catch has decreased since 2017, stating that this was as a result of decline of the industrial catch.
According to the report, the industrial firms attribute this drop in catch to a 
reduction in fishing effort as a result of an increase in sargassum and an inability to find and capture seabob, possibly due to a declining stock. For those unfamiliar, sargassum is a group of large brown seaweed (a type of algae) that floats in island-like masses and never attaches to the seafloor.
It was also stated that challenges to fishing effort were further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, it was pointed out in the report that the reasons for fluctuating and declining catch are not well-studied which is in turn mainly due to a lack of action from Guyana’s Fisheries Department and the private actors in this regard, implying a critical need to conduct studies to investigate the problem, identify the root causes and take proper actions to ensure the sustainability of the seabob stock.
Recently, concerns have been raised about declining fish catch, with accusations from the fisherman that the decline was owed to the oil operations offshore Guyana. In response to the accusations the Government hastily in collaboration with the FAO conducted a study but the full report was not released to the public.
- European Union, FISH4ACP, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, seabob
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