The Caribbean family has always had a complex relationship with the seas that surround its nations; the story of fishing in the region is reflective of this. While businesses have earned income and sustained livelihoods due to fishing, there have occasionally been great setbacks and struggles owing to hurricanes and other misfortunes visited upon the region’s waters.
Now in 2019 a new chapter is beginning in the story of the Caribbean’s commercial fishing sector; and while this industry is one that has always had ebbs and flows, it’s clear that this latest chapter will be its most crucial yet.
The Commercial Fishing Industry Today
An understanding of the contemporary state of commercial fishing within the Caribbean first requires a recognition of the biggest fishing nations and regions of the world, and how their practices compare to fishing in local waters.
A listing of the world’s biggest fishing nations shows that the clear and decisive shift of economic power from west to east is well underway. 2016 saw the United States remain the fourth largest commercial fishing nation in the world, hauling in 4.92 million metric tons annually. Norway was the only other Western nation (and sole European one) within the top 10, harvesting 2.03 metric tons annually. China, Indonesia and India formed the top three, and collectively harvested 29.16 metric tons annually. Though nations in Asia have led in harvesting, in many global issues within commercial fishing they’ve lagged (further particulars detailed later on).
The annual haul alone is not the sole indicator of economic productivity and profit. After all, Russian caviar may be rarer but it will invariably attract a higher price by the pound than the Catch of the Day.
A list of the top ten exporting nations bears many similarities to a list of the largest commercial fishing nations. The presence of Canada, Sweden and Chile in the top 10 of the world’s biggest exporting nations shows that countries with a comparatively smaller population can still make a big splash in global fishing. The key consideration is: At what price?
Casting a Line in the Caribbean
Recent years have seen substantial change to fishing operations across the region. Yes, human beings have been fishing since the hunter-gatherer era but the remarkable speed of globalisation in the past couple of decades has brought change like never before.
The region’s nations are encircled by water — and so have an abundance of potential resources on hand — but the comparatively small population (and the separation of nations as sovereign entities) means that total output as a region has historically been limited.
Here in Saint Lucia it was really only in the 1990s that an industrial element came to be present in this nation’s Exclusive Economic Zone (spanning 15,400 square kilometers around the island), with the introduction of offshore fishery technology and upgraded fibreglass boats, provided via Japan, replacing traditional canoes that numerous Saint Lucian fishermen were still using.
While some exporting appears to have occured before then, beginning with a turtle trade to the UK in the 1950s, the little documentation that has survived through the decades makes it difficult to confirm the nature and scale of the industry. Nonetheless, that prior generation’s fishermen were known to utilise relatively simple equipment, with around only 50 per cent of boats mechanised in the late 1960s.
The industry has typically known periods of rapid growth and setback; consider the destruction caused by hurricanes like the infamous Hurricane Allen that struck in August 1980. But the present era is unlike one any fishing business has ever faced before.
Catch and Release
The rising middle class in many Asian nations is a tremendous achievement in the battle against global poverty but it comes with new challenges. Thankfully, commercial whaling has largely disappeared, although Japan has long gone against the grain of international opinion by continuing to practise it, albeit under the auspices of ‘scientific research’. Prominent success stories have been seen, such as the Chinese people’s commendable turn away from shark-fin soup, with consumption dropping around 80 per cent between 2011 and 2018, but demand for the dish elsewhere in Asia means that conservation successes can be a case of ‘one step forward, two steps back’.
Many Caribbean fishers are understood to have long under-reported hauls of certain species that are endangered, weighing the risks of such a species not being there tomorrow against failing to turn a profit today. The result of this saw researchers in 2017 declare that 90 per cent of the Caribbean’s predatory fish had disappeared due to overfishing. Compounding this is the threat of climate change. The bleaching of coral reef has resulted in a direct and immediate impact on fish populations.
For the Caribbean commercial fishing industry, opening up to the soaring global demand that brings more profits locally is great, especially when the existential threat of climate change is considered. But satisfying the demand, especially a surging and colossal one, cannot come at the expense of long-term sustainability, particularly when some markets have little to no regard for conservation. In this regard, local conservation groups have done some tremendous work to raise awareness of the issues and drive change, but more remains to be done.
Looking Ahead
In the future there’s the prospect of nurturing new fish and other marine life at nurseries, to assist in repopulation of depleted seas. Advances in technology will make it easier to monitor fish stocks and help prevent overfishing. But neither of these future possibilities should be relied on presently in the absence of strong regulations and vigilant monitoring. Just like the efforts to slow the impact of climate change, any idea that a cure is more or less as good as prevention, is wrong.
Even if innovation cycles shorten, the presumption that resources can be wasted today due to the advances expected tomorrow would be foolish. But they do offer some comfort to those who’ve looked with anguish at the setbacks seen in years prior, and worry about the sustainability of the industry and fish populations in the years ahead.
Yes, there is some relief on the horizon — but ultimately the tide must turn today.
