London-based journalist Philippa Jacks writes, over at her blog, about the Bluefields Bay marine sanctuary project in Jamaica:
I was in Jamaica last week for a tourism conference and spent a fascinating day down on the south west coast, learning about a marine sanctuary project at Bluefields Bay.
More destructive fishing methods and growing unemployment have led to greater and greater pressure upon Jamaica’s fish stocks, and it is now the most over-fished country in the entire Caribbean. In 2009, the Jamaican government agreed to create nine marine sanctuaries around the country, where fishing would be banned so stocks could regenerate.
With the financial support of Virgin Holidays, The Travel Foundation and the Sandals Foundation, the Bluefields Bay Fishermen’s Friendly Society has been able to manufacture marker-buoys which will clearly demarcate this 3,000-hectare reserve.
The next step will be to raise the cash for a boat and crew-member to patrol the sanctuary and enforce the no-fishing policy. Luckily, president of the society Wolde Kristos has the support of almost the entire Bluefields fishing community, which means the project is much more likely to succeed than if the sanctuary had been imposed without local support.
Dr Owen Day, of not-for-proft organisation Caribsave, says that a film made in 2009 has played a key role in educating Jamaican people on and changing their attitudes about the fishing crisis. In Massa God Fish Can Done, the Nature Conservancy took 10 Jamaican fishermen to Belize to show the level of regeneration that has been achieved at Belize’s Hol Chan, which became Belize’s first marine reserve in 1987.
Visit Philippa’s blog to read her entire post about the Bluefields Bay project. See also: the Caribsave website. And you can watch Massa God Fish Can Done below:
Previous related posts on Green Antilles include: No-fishing zones established for marine protection in Jamaica, Fishery reserves in Jamaica: the case of Pedro Bank and An Antiguan fisherman’s journey.
[Photo: slack13]
