Linkages To Be Strengthened For Sustainability Of Fisheries Sector

The importance of strengthening linkages across Ministries to bolster the sustainability of the Fisheries Sector has been emphasised by Agriculture and Fisheries Minister, Hon. Pearnel Charles Jr.

“We are, unfortunately, victims of poaching and predatory practices from several other jurisdictions. That is why it is going to be critical for us, as we examine the development of the Fisheries Sector, to create the linkages in the Ministry. This will involve the

Ministry of National Security, Health, Education, Tourism and other relevant Ministries. This will allow us to strengthen the development of a sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture Sector in Jamaica,” the Minister said.

He was speaking at a JIS ‘Think Tank’ on Tuesday, March 8.

With direction from the National Fisheries Authority (NFA), cooperation across Ministries is expected to improve the island’s approach to addressing threats to the sector, including Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), IUU fishing captures a wide variety of activities across the sector.

Occurring both on the high seas and in areas within national jurisdictions, IUU fishing concerns all aspects and stages of the capture and utilisation of fish, while sometimes being associated with organised crime. Mr. Charles Jr. pointed out that the island has suffered from IUU fishing. Meanwhile, the Minister said the Government is committed to ensuring that an inclusive and sustainable approach is used to making decisions and implementing the policies around good governance.

“I believe that we also have a strong partnership with the FAO. We are developing our policies based on the FAO code of conduct on responsible fisheries to which Jamaica has subscribed, and even though we have draft policies at this stage, the trajectory is for Jamaica to become a prime example of sustainable fishing practices,” Minister Charles Jr. noted.

With a relatively large marine space 24 times more than the country’s terrestrial space, the Fisheries Minister underscored the opportunities for the sector to examine deep-sea fishing and to properly map the marine space. “We are committed to building capacity among the relevant stakeholders, to ensure that we strengthen collaboration and cooperation with other institutions, as well as to collaborate with regional institutions to share best practices and to identify the optimum ways of ensuring greatest effectiveness and increasing efficiency in the subsector,” Minister Charles Jr. said.

Efforts at strengthening the operations of Jamaica’s fisheries sector will be led by the NFA.

The NFA is responsible for the conservation and sustainable utilisation of Jamaica’s fisheries resources, in a manner that ensures optimum social and economic benefits to Jamaica. This is achieved through proper fisheries management involving research, monitoring of environmental quality, education and training, enforcement, licensing and registration, data collection and community outreach.