The Fishing Industry of the region will soon have the benefit of a comprehensive package for the sustainable management and use of the Queen Counch (or Lambi) in the Caribbean. To this end, a group of thirteen (13) resource managers and fishers from within the region will gather in St.Vincent and the Grenadines to take part in a training of trainers workshop dubbed “Training in underwater visual survey methods for evaluating the status of the Strombus gigas, Qeen Counch stock”. The workshop takes place from 6th – 24th August and will be held in 3 phases: 1. two theoretical events in Kingstown at the CRFM’s Office 2. One practical session in the Grenadines in areas including the Tobago Cays, Mayeau and Union Island where most of the queen conch can be found. During the 3-week long workshop, the participants will be introduced to the use of an underwater visual census technique currently being implemented by the French counterpart and CRFM (Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism) to evaluate the status of the queen conch. It will involve: i. collecting and collating information on the biology of the conch, ii. survey design, field work preparation, iii. data collection from scuba diving and towed-video recordings, iv. data entry, analysis, report generation and management recommendation This information will be used to determine whether an extension of the queen conch survey in the Caribbean ACP States will be considered. Fisheries officials have indicated that although in some caribbean territories, such as Jamaica, Belize and to some extent the Dominican Republic and Bahamas, where the queen conch fishery is a well established commercial business, there is very little information available with which to make creditable decisions by most fishery managers in smaller caribbean countries. “the Lambi or Queen Conch is a specie identified with the carribbean territorities for centuries but yet lacks fisheries information espceically in places where it is harvested, though on small scale, on a continuous basis.” This training is a part of the European Union funded ACP Fish II Program which was formulated to strengthen fisheries management, improve food security and alleviate poverty in 78 Agrican , Caribbean and Pacific States. It’s primary purpose is to assist in devising sound policies and plans to ensure sustainable use of fisheries and the development of value-added activities. The workshop will end with a closing ceremony in which the media will be invited to share the findings of the workshop and the way forward.
Posted on: Sat, 03 Aug 2013 10:16:09 +0000
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