Gov’t to Advance Blue Economy with Sea Moss Focus

The Government will continue advancing the blue economy, with a particular focus on sea moss.

Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining, Hon. Floyd Green, reported that over the past three years, 200 fishers have been trained in sea moss husbandry.

He further stated that the National Fisheries Authority (NFA) expects commercial sea moss production to triple, rising from 1,400 kilograms in 2025 to 5,000 kilograms by 2027.

The Minister was making his contribution to the 2026/27 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives on Wednesday (May 13).

“We have trained over 320 fishers in pelagic fishing, and our next step is now to build out the cold chain resources for them. So when they go out and catch the marlin, catch the mahi-mahi, they have the facilities to keep that cold and supply it to our market,” Mr. Green said.

“We’ll continue to drive oyster production. We had two groups in Westmoreland and Hanover that had eight racks holding over 4,500 dozen oysters ready for harvest, and they lost all of that in Hurricane Melissa. Nonetheless, we are going to help them to build it back. We have allocated over $1 million to rebuild their oyster farms and to restore their oyster collection systems. This will help 48 oyster farmers,” he added.

Meanwhile, Mr. Green announced that the registration and licensing system for fishers has transitioned to an online platform, IrieFINS – Jamaica’s Fisheries and Aquaculture Information System.

“It used to take five months for fishers to get their renewal or their fishing licence. It now takes the maximum five days… that is how this Government has moved. But we’ve seen some good returns. When I became Minister, the renewals were only 20 per cent. Now that we’ve made it easier, we are up to 50 per cent of our fishers doing their renewals,” he stated.

“Outside of that compliance, when the Coast Guard went out, they weren’t finding a lot of people with their fisher’s licence. Now what they have told us is, it is 78 per cent of the people they interact with who have a fishing licence. We’re moving in the right direction,” Mr. Green added.