The economic decline of the past ten years in the Caribbean, due largely to the changes in trading arrangements for bananas, has had severe negative impacts. Fishing continues to support a significant number of households, but people have had to seek work in the manufacturing, tourism, commercial and construction sectors. To support opportunities for income generation from the sea, participatory approaches to technology development addressed, among other things, the feasibility of cultivating species of edible red algae that were known to have market potential in the Caribbean and to assess the economic feasibility of its cultivation. The management of marketable sea urchins in the light of declining stocks was also investigated.