Recreational fisheries

TABLE 33

Employment alternatives for fishers and others in the pelagic fishery

TABLE 34

Proportion of income from fishing industry in Barbados (%)

TABLE 35

Fishers’ alternative work in and out of the fishing season in Barbados (%)

TABLE 36

Estimates of the value of the large pelagic fishery

^a Lum Young and Maharaj (1991).

Numbers of charter vessels

The numbers of charter vessels vary considerably from country to country (Table 37). However, in general, this component of the fishing fleet is not well documented, and details regarding the numbers of vessels engaging in various types of sport fishing are seldom available.

Assessment of the numbers is complicated by the fact that many owners of private recreational vessels appear to offer them for charter from time to time as a means of offsetting the cost of owning and operating the vessel for recreation.

Numbers of private local vessels

The numbers of private, local sport fishing vessels and their activities appear to be even less well known in most countries that those of charter boats (Table 38). The study for northwestern Trinidad indicates that sport fishing vessels take 10 percent of the total catch there, indicating the potential importance of this vessel category.

Visiting sport fishing vessels

Owing to its proximity to the United States, the Bahamas is clearly the country with the greatest potential to benefit from visiting sport fishing vessels. In the eastern Caribbean islands, there appears to be some inter-island interaction among these vessels (Table 39). Presumably this would be greater if the tournament schedule were coordinated among the islands.

TABLE 37

Numbers of charter vessels

^a Antia (2000).
^b The Official Guide to Boating and Fishing in the Bahamas, Bahamas Ministry of Tourism.
^c Mahon (1995).
^d Mike and Cowx (1996).

TABLE 38

Numbers of private local vessels

^a Mike and Cowx (1996).

TABLE 39

Number of vessels that visit each year

FIGURE 20
Breakdown of tournament anglers and boats in Barbados

Source: Antia (2000)

Sport fishing tournaments

There are organized tournaments in most countries (Table 40). These do not appear to be coordinated in a schedule that would allow vessels from outside the region to visit for a period covering several tournaments, or charter operators to offer a tournament package that could be marketed regionally.

TABLE 40

Names and timing of tournaments for large pelagics

^a Antia (2000).
^b [email protected], fax 954-925-1033, 499 E. Sheridan St. Suite 300, Dania, FL 33004.
^c Harvey (1989).
^d Information on tournaments from Loron Thomas, president of the Game Fishing Association.

Sport fishing associations

There are nine sport fishing associations in CARICOM (Table 41). These could provide an opportunity for coordinated activity at the local and regional level. Activities could include data gathering, valuation of sport fisheries, tagging and sport fishing tourism development.

TABLE 41

Sport fishing associations

TABLE 42

Valuation of sport fisheries and references

^a Antia (2000). Efforts to quantify the contribution of charter boats to the Barbadian economy were frustrated by charter operators’ unwillingness to disclose information on their income, expenditures or financial status. Very rough estimates suggest gross revenue per boat of about $BDS 175 000 per year, mainly from half-day fishing trips. However, the total number and type of trips made per year differ from one operator to the next, as does the revenue generated from the sale of recreational catches or genuine commercial fishing.

^b Mahon (1995).

Valuation of sport fisheries

There are few comprehensive valuations of sport fishing for CARICOM countries (Table 42). The lack of this information remains a serious impediment to development planning for large pelagic fisheries. The primary economic question is whether the resources are more valuable for sport fishing or small-scale commercial fishing. The primary social question pertains to equity: who derives the benefits and who is negatively affected if one type of fishing is given preference over another.

A rough valuation for charter vessels can be made based on a total of about 85 charter boats in CARICOM countries. If each boat makes three trips a week at US$ 500 per trip, the average annual gross revenue per boat would be US$ 78 000, and the total annual revenue for all boats would be US$ 6.6 million. This is about 9 percent of the value of commercial fisheries. This does not include earnings from the sale of fish caught. Earnings from tournaments and the value of private vessels must also be added to the value of charter-boat fisheries.

Conclusions

By far the majority of vessels that target large pelagics in CARICOM countries are small, open and outboard powered. Vessels, even larger ones, are multipurpose and pursue multispecies fisheries. Such fleets - large numbers of small vessels - present substantial management problems regarding communication with fishers and the monitoring of their activities. Thus it will be difficult to enforce ICCAT regulations and quotas with any certainty.

In order to be able to present a comprehensive picture of the fleets in CARICOM countries, there is a need for a vessel classification scheme that works for CARICOM or, preferably, the Caribbean. This will require a small, focused effort or project. The scheme should be simple and not break small-scale vessels into too many categories. Characteristics such as length, decked or not, propulsion and gear might be adequate. The project could be based on LRS data from CFRAMP countries.

The scheme should include commercial and recreational vessels. Information on the latter is lacking in most countries. These data are needed if management schemes that address the needs of both are to be based on information about the relative economic contributions of these vessels.

The majority of fishing for large pelagics by CARICOM countries remains within tens of kilometres of the port. Countries are not at present utilizing their EEZs extensively, owing to a lack of vessels with appropriate capability.

Charter-boat fishing does not appear to be promoted by the tourism authorities in many countries. Charter boat operators in Antigua and Trinidad felt that their sport fishing was as good as in some of the game fish “hot spots”, but was not promoted.

Ports in CARICOM countries are also multipurpose. As for vessels, a classification scheme is needed for landing sites in these countries. This would also require a small, focused project. Much of the data are already available, so an inventory of landing sites and their characteristics as the basis for classification is feasible.

Systematic estimates of the value of the fishery are not available. There is a need for such estimates of value (not necessarily complicated), relative to national levels and also compiled regionally. There is also a lack of information on the value of recreational fishing.

Consistent categorizations and reporting formats among CARICOM countries need to be pursued for vessels, landing sites and many other types of information, so that data can be more easily compiled at the regional level. Consistent information across these countries is needed if management and development are to occur on a regional basis. The information will serve to quantify the importance of fisheries to CARICOM countries themselves, in order to justify expenditure for regional initiatives and to prepare regional proposals for donors, which will be a main function of CRFM.

Accurate and detailed data on fleets and fishing practices are also important inputs to fishery management planning. This type of information will help countries take part in collaborative management of shared large pelagics. Lack of this information may be an impediment to obtaining allocated shares of resources.

The issue of foreign flagging will continue to present problems. It is perceived internationally by states and management organizations as uncontrolled fishing by a flag state. The countries, individually or collectively, should consider the IPOA-IUU as a framework for addressing IUU fishing both within the region and in distant waters.

Because of multipurpose vessels and the seasonality of fishing, it is difficult to assign levels of employment to any one harvest group. A standardized way to address the question of employment remains elusive. In terms of actual jobs, the number of full-time equivalent positions would be an indicator of employment. This could be prorated among harvest groups according to landings. While there are differences in employment levels among the various vessel types pursuing the different fisheries, it would at least allow a reasonably accurate, standard approach to estimating and presenting employment in the industry. The question of how many households are impacted by this employment, owing to part-time fishing, could be a separate category of information.

The region is dependent on external sources of larger vessels. Here and in other areas of supply, there are opportunities to develop industries that serve the local and regional needs of CARICOM fisheries (boats, rope, gear, etc.). However, these must be competitive in price and quality, with goods available on the global market. There may be potential for developing an intraregional bait industry and trade in order to provide bait for longliners.

Subsidies or incentives are common among CARICOM countries, and there is a need to look more closely at the impact of subsidies to determine if they are having the intended effects on industry development and/or food security or are just providing a free ride (industry-wide, not only pelagics).

Availability of vessel and crew insurance is an issue for development in CARICOM countries. Small vessels are difficult to insure. Most countries have national insurance schemes that are available to fishers, even as self-employed individuals. However, there appears to be a need to promote these schemes to them. This will bring fishers more into the social mainstream and, in the longer term, elevate the profile of the industry as one that provides a secure employment option.

Credit for investment in the fishing industry appears to be available to larger-scale entrepreneurs. Several countries cite credit schemes for small-scale fishers that failed due to lack of repayment. This may have left the impression that small-scale fishers are high loan risks. However, there has been little innovation regarding repayment schemes and schedules geared to small-scale fishers (McConney, 2000).

There is the potential for exchanges among countries to provide training and apprenticeship opportunities for fishers. In particular, there is a need for training in assuring the quality of fish if large pelagics are to achieve their potential economic impact through export.

The role of large pelagic fishing in the economy of certain rural communities and individual fishers must be better documented. Thus far, we have mainly general statements as to whether a community or group of fishers is very dependent on fishing, but no quantification of the extent of dependency relative to other sectors and of the community indicators that would be useful in assessing independence.

In summary, it is notable that much of the information provided on large pelagics is qualitative, based on the expert judgement of national fisheries staff. While this information is undoubtedly accurate and may be adequate for many management decisions, it is not likely to be persuasive in justifying the value of the industry locally, regionally or internationally. As countries seek to take part in management of shared resources through international or regional organizations, higher standards of data management, providing information in more consistent formats, are likely to be required.

At the same time, for small countries, the constraints on the acquisition and provision of data regarding small-scale fisheries must be recognized. Countries should be aware of current trends in fisheries assessment and management towards simpler, more indicator- or trend-based approaches (e.g. Kesteven, 1999; Garcia and Staples, 2000) and towards reference directions rather than quantitative targets (Berkes et al., 2001). They should explore these approaches - more compatible with small-island developing states - as they participate in international management.