Caribbean Maritime Institute at Palisados Park
October 15th, 2006 by Fishing admin
THE Fisheries Division of the Ministry of Agriculture is pushing to have fishing licences suspended for five years to allow for the resuscitation of the island’s over-fished reef areas.
The five-year interval, according to seamanship instructor Hartnel Murphy, would result in a gradual decrease in the number of fishermen, thereby allowing new stock to breed.
“After the five years, we propose to issue one licence for every three fishermen who retire from the system,” Murphy said during a presentation on Thursday at the Caribbean Maritime Institute at Palisados Park.
In the interim, the division is encouraging Jamaicans to take up deep-sea fishing, suggesting that persons could combinethis activity with shallow-water fishing, a method commonly used by local fishermen.
“We are going to run a course for people interested in deep-water fishing, and we are now working to sensitise fishermen from the various villages in the island,” Murphy told the Observer.
He said a number of local fishermen have been engaged in an experiment, with the help of Japanese experts, to identify deep water areas and introduce new methods of fishing.
“The Japanese representatives are locating the areas before encouraging people to go that route,” Murphy said, adding that it is cheaper to do deep-sea fishing than the method now being practised by local fishermen.
“You don’t have to go very far to get to deep water,” said Murphy.
He explained that the majority of local fishermen use the ‘pot-fishing’ method, which is done in relatively shallow waters off the island’s coastline.
Unfortunately, Murphy said, the shelf was very narrow around the island, leading to congestion as fishermen pour into the limited fishing area on the reefs.
Murphy told the gathering that the damage caused by over-fishing and industrial pollution - which has left the island’s fish stock depleted - would be irreversible if these trends continued.
“From the data, the division has found that fish size is getting smaller in the shallow water,” he noted.
In 2001, the number of licensed local fishermen had grown to 15,000, while the annual catch had gradually diminished from a high of 11,000 metric tons in the 1960s to approximately 6,000 metric tons, according to fisheries division data.
Meanwhile, the fisheries division is promoting deep-sea fishing of a species called the diamond back squid, as well as tuna. These two species, the division said, are in abundance and fetch a high price on the export market.
“We are not trying to stop the fishing on the reefs, but there are un-utilised resources in the deep water, and the reef areas will have the time to resuscitate,” Murphy added