Earth Today | Virgin Islands fisherfolk to benefit from sargassum intervention

FISHERFOLK IN the Virgin Islands will soon benefit from two pilot projects aimed at managing sargassum seaweed influxes and reducing ghost fishing.

The pilot projects will run from September to December 2023 and are being funded under the Darwin Plus project, ‘Capacity building in fisheries evidence, networks and management in the Virgin Islands’.

The first pilot project will support the local construction of a low-cost, reusable boom, which can serve to deflect sargassum from Setting Point on the southern coast of the island of Anegada.

The mangrove-lined southern coastline of Anegada is an area of importance to the local fishing community since it serves as a nursery area for fish. It also serves as an anchorage for fishing and non-fishing vessels.

During heavy sargassum inundations, the quality of the water on the south coast of Anegada is significantly affected, resulting in fish kills and migration of turtles from the area.

These impacts are thought to be caused by changes in salinity and decreased oxygen concentrations in the water brought on by the seasonal build-up of the macroalgae.

Under the pilot project, local fisherfolk will work with other project stakeholders to construct, install and monitor the effectiveness of the re-usable boom with the aim of reducing impacts on biodiversity, livelihoods and health caused by sargassum influxes at Setting Point.

The second pilot project will test an electronic trap recovery system to reduce gear loss and ghost fishing in the Virgin Islands’ pot and trap fisheries. In the Virgin Islands, pots and traps set to catch both reef fish and lobster are the predominant fisheries.

In these fisheries, fishers are always at risk of losing their fishing gear, including due to changes in tides or currents, marker buoy lines being severed by the propellers of marine traffic, fishing gear getting dragged into deeper water by storms or tangled with other types of fishing gear.

When lost, pots and traps become Abandoned, Lost, or otherwise Discarded Fishing Gear (ALDFG) and have the potential to cause ‘ghost fishing’, i.e., the gear continues to fish while not in the control of the owner.

In a recent survey conducted by the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science with a sample group of Virgin Island fishers, fisherfolk reported that traps were among the ALDFG they most frequently encountered.

Under the pilot project, 20 fishers from the pot and trap fisheries in the Virgin Islands will be engaged to trial the use of an electronic fishing trap recovery system to improve the location and retrieval of pots and traps that have lost their primary marker buoy.

The trap recovery system, which is designed by RESQUNIT, consists of an integrated buoy that deploys and floats to the surface when an electronic time lock releases it. The release of the buoy also creates an opening, allowing any trapped fish or lobster to escape.

Both pilot projects will report and share results, lessons learned and recommendations on the potential for replication and upscaling.

The pilot projects are part of efforts by the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute and the Department Agriculture and Fisheries within the Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources and Climate Change of the Government of the Virgin Islands to demonstrate best practices and innovations in sustainable fisheries and marine management under the ongoing Darwin Plus-funded project ‘Capacity building in fisheries evidence, networks and management in the Virgin Islands’.