Fisheries for Sustainable Fishers: Caribbean Fishers Leading the Way

In November the 64th annual meeting of the Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute (GCFI) took place in Cancun, Mexico. This event is the largest annual gathering of scientists, researchers, fishers and natural resource managers in the wider Caribbean region, with over 300 participants from 38 countries or island groups. The meeting served as a unique opportunity for fishers, conservationists and scientists to come together to exchange current information on the use and management of marine resources in the Gulf and Caribbean region and to work in partnership to develop effective solutions to the many challenges they face.

Acknowledging the invaluable leadership role fishers play in successful management of fisheries resources, the GCFI and other partners developed the Gladding Memorial Award (GMA) in 2004 to annually recognize fishers who demonstrate, through word and action, their commitment to the sustainable use and conservation of marine resources. Named in honor of patriarch Florida Keys fisherman Peter Gladding, the award is part of GCFI’s larger Fisheries for Fishers Initiative which also includes the Fishers Forum and the Small Grants fund for Fisher Exchanges and Alternative Livelihoods for Fishers. This year, Martha Gongora from Cozumel, Mexico was the recipient of the award.

The Fisheries for Fishers Initiative or F4F is founded on the principle that fishers must be engaged and empowered to be part of the process of managing marine resources. Mitchell Lay, the Chairman of the GMA committee and a fisher from Antigua, put it this way: “The Fisheries for Fishers Initiative represents a regionwide opportunity for us, the fishers, to be able to shape policy so that we can ensure that our livelihoods and fishery resources remain sustainable for future generations.”

This year’s F4F focus in Cancun was the involvement of fishers in fisheries governance (highlighting case studies from Guatemala, Belize and the Lesser Antilles) and the continued development and capacity-building of leading individuals and communities within the fishing sector committed to sustainable use of their resources. An annual activity valued by all, the F4F field trip took a group of about 30 fishers and managers to visit the Quintana Roo Federation of Fishing Co-operatives so that the visiting fishers could learn from their Mexican counterparts about how they manage their lobster, conch and reef fish fisheries. The next day a smaller group of attending fishers met to take decisions on priority issues and actions raised at the Fishers Forum general session and in support of the wider F4F objectives. Fishers also actively participated in research and management sessions on lionfish and conch and lobster.

The GCFI F4F program represented a unique forum for Gulf and Caribbean fishers to influence and drive sustainable fishery activities and foster efforts within the fishing community to think, act and educate peers towards more sustainable fishing practices. Now in its fifth year, F4F participants are leading the way in ensuring a future for the region’s fisheries and its fishers.

This year’s F4F activities were made possible with funding from the Regional Activities Center of the United Nations Environment Programme, GCFI, FAO Subregional Office for the Caribbean, CRFM and The Nature Conservancy.

For additional information on the Fishers Forum, the GMA and the 64th Annual Meeting of the GCFI, please contact Mitchell Lay at mitch.lay@gcfi.org or visit www.gcfi.org.

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

Related Posts
World Fisheries Day
Report on the UN's World Water Day
Seven Ways to Save the Seas

Read More»

World Fisheries Day

World Fisheries day is celebrated every year on November 21 throughout the world by fisherfolk communities. Fishing communities worldwide celebrate this day through rallies, workshops, public meetings, cultural programs, dramas, exhibition, music show, and demonstrations to highlight the importance of maintaining the world's fisheries.

World Fisheries Day celebrations serve as an important reminder that we must focus on changing the way the world manages global fisheries to ensure sustainable stocks and healthy oceans ecosystems. Just last month the United Nations General Assembly called on countries that have not yet done so to become a party to the Law of the Sea regarding jurisdiction over national and international waters, as well as the seabed, and to maintain sustainable fisheries.

A recent United Nations study reported that more than two-thirds of the world's fisheries have been overfished or are fully harvested and more than one third are in a state of decline because of factors such as the loss of essential fish habitats, pollution, and global warming.

According to the report by the UN Environment Program (UNEP).Greener policies would still grow economies while reducing the ecological footprint by nearly 50 percent in the next 40 years, but some jobs would be lost as a result in sectors such as fisheries, according to the U.N. Environment Program (UNEP) report. The report indicates that government subsidies in the fishing industry amount to about $27 billion a year and have created excess capacity and depleted fish stocks globally.

The World Fisheries Day helps in highlighting the critical importance to human lives, of water and the lives it sustains. Water forms a continuum, whether contained in rivers, lakes, and ocean.

Besides the importance of water for survival and as a means of transportation, it is also an important source of fish and aquatic protein. Fish forms an important part of the diets of people around the world, particularly those that live near rivers, coasts and other bodies of water. A number of traditional societies and communities depend on fishing.

This is why a majority of human settlements, whether small villages or mega cities, are situated in close proximity to water bodies. However, these communities will be dramatically effected by coastal flooding due to global warming.

This proximity has also lead to severe ocean and coastal pollution from run-off and from domestic and industrial activities. This has led to depletion of fish stocks in the immediate vicinity, requiring fishermen to fish farther and farther away from their traditional grounds.

Mechanization has also resulted in a crisis as fish sticks are being depleted with the help of 'factory' vessels, bottom trawling, and other means of unsustainable fishing.

We must work together to find sustainable means of maintaining fish stocks. World Fisheries Day helps to highlight the problems, and encourage movement towards finding solutions to the increasingly inter-connected problems we face. 

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

Related Posts
Fisheries for Sustainable Fishers: Caribbean Fishers Leading the Way
Report on the UN's World Water Day
Seven Ways to Save the Seas

Read More»