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Cherishing Belize’s fisheries

GeneralCherishing Belize’s fisheries
Belize’s capture fisheries continue to be the focus of targeted efforts which are said to be aimed at ensuring that Belizeans can continue to enjoy a fresh catch on their dinner tables for ages to come.
 
However, Belize, like many other countries in the world, is facing the reality that certain types of fish – the Nassau Grouper for one – are just not as available in the waters as they used to be.
 
Apart from the fact that fishing pressure by people who demand them for food places stress on fish populations, degraded ecosystems and threats from invasive species, such as the lionfish, underscore that there is today even greater need to properly manage the resources we have.
 
Officials of the Environmental Defense Fund, a US-based NGO with an international network, hosted a presentation and discussion Wednesday morning at the training room of the Coastal Zone Management Authority’s office in Belize City to talk about a program they are implementing in Belize.
 
The program involves a concept known as “catch shares,” which the group describes as an incentive-based management of fisheries.
 
Larry Epstein, Mesoamerican Reef Program Manager of Environmental Defense Fund, Douglas N. Rader, Ph.D. – Chief Ocean Scientist, and Kate Bonzon – Program Manager, spoke about “Catch Shares: Sustainable Fisheries in Belize.”
 
Radar explains that the catch shares system involves dedicating a block of the fishing areas to particular persons, communities or groups, for sustainable exploitation, where the fishermen reap better benefits (earn dividends) when they use the resources responsibly and take care of the fishing area.
 
In their presentation, the EDF reps explain that catch shares “allocate a secure, dedicated share of the total catch or area” to individuals, groups or communities, and the allocation is scaled depending on the fishery and the community to which the program is applied.
 
Individual Fishing Quotas (IFQs) are a form of catch share, but so are Community Development Quotas (CDQs). Systems have been tested in Japan, Mexico, Chile, New Zealand, Iceland, the United States, Canada, Australia, Namibia and the European Union, says EDF.
 
“While we can broadly look at catch shares and how they have performed around the world, how we actually implement them here has to be unique to this place,” said Kate Bonzon. “We have seen that in some countries like the United States, Canada, Iceland, New Zealand, the route that they have gone has been more towards an individual fishing quota, and that has a catch limit and there is pretty strong enforcement capacity around that.
 
“But we’ve also seen a lot of success in other places like the Baja lobster coop [Mexico]…in places where there isn’t as much enforcement, where there isn’t as much science and capacity. I think the key is that you start where you are and incrementally build towards something better.”
 
Larry Epstein, the Mesoamerican Reef Program Manager, said that EDF has to engage the fishing communities. Already, Port Honduras and Glovers Reef have been selected for first intervention with this program, which makes sense, he said, since groundwork is already underway in those areas.
 
There is the need to leverage the experiences in those areas to get fishermen from elsewhere onboard, and the program would have to be flexible and adapt if expanded to other areas, Epstein explained.
 
Sustainable management of fisheries works better if the interests of government and fishermen are aligned towards sustainability for both parties, Bonzon said.
 
She demonstrated (using a PowerPoint presentation) that when catch shares are implemented (1) over-fishing stops, (2) wastage or the taking of unnecessary by-catch declines, and (3) revenues to fishermen increase remarkably by as much as 170% in the fifth year of implementation.
 
An invitation was extended to all stakeholders in the industry and those with an interest in the fisheries sector for this morning’s presentation/discussion, but attendance for the session was sparse.
 
Local collaborators are Toledo Institute for Development and Environment (TIDE) and Wildlife Conservation Society, Belize.
 
A promotional booklet distributed at today’s event claims that, “Catch shares will end the race to fish and can give fishermen more flexibility in how and when they fish.”

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