Every year the United Nations celebrates June 29 (the Feast of St Peter the Fisherman) as International Fishermen's Day. In some Caribbean countries, the week surrounding the day is observed as Fisherman's Week, and exhibitions and displays, sports and games take place which 'big up' the fishing community.
In vain have I called on the Jamaican government in this column over the years (e.g., as early as June 30, 1999) to give due recognition to the men and women involved in the capture and sale of fish, and to put in place measures to manage fish stocks to promote optimum yield, but to no avail. Until now. This year the Jamaican government for the first time will observe Fisherman's Day and Fisherman's Week, beginning with a church service in Old Harbour Bay this Sunday.
This new interest in the sector is due in no small measure to the new minister with portfolio responsibility for fisheries, who represents a constituency with a large number of fishers. As a sign of the Government's intent, the line ministry (formerly the Ministry of Agriculture) has been renamed The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries.
Despite recommendations from as far back as the 1970s, only two fish sanctuaries have ever been designated. The plan is for seven or eight to be created this parlia-mentary year, with non-governmental organi-sations contracted to manage them and to enforce the regulations. The fishing community has been asking for this for years, as they know the value of no-fishing zones which protect breeding stocks and replenish surrounding areas. For the life of me I cannot understand why previous governments have been so anti-environmental, and have allowed our fisheries to become the most overfished in the Caribbean, and probably the world!
A new Fisheries Act is about to go to Parliament which will introduce a raft of fisheries-management measures, including a total islandwide ban on spearfishing, and mini-mum mesh sizes for nets and traps. As paradoxical as this may sound, these measures will increase the size and weight of fish caught in Jamaican waters, and lead to significant increase in income for small-scale fishers who are among the lowest socio-economic groups in the country.
Why introducing such measures was resisted for so long by previous governments is a mystery! They will produce a win-win situation: economic benefits for fishers and their families, conservation of ecosystems in the natural environment, and kudos and political capital for the government that introduces them.
Government bureaucracy
Despite decisions having already been taken at the highest level, it is taking an inordinately long time for them to be implemented. Our government bureaucracy is a major obstacle to change because of the high level of inertia in our civil service. The Fisheries Division has been restructured, and a chief executive officer has replaced the director of fisheries as the senior administrator.
This is a start, but the department is burdened with 'fisheries instructors' who don't instruct, and staff who are afraid that if they enforce the fisheries laws they will lose the confidence of the fishers. Little do they know that genuine fishers want the laws enforced.
It would seem that, all things considered, the fisheries sector is heading towards sustainability, ahead of the rest of the economy. Environmentalists like myself have been arguing for years that achieving sustainable development will mean both conservation and economic progress in all sectors of the economy, where sustainable strategies are pursued, and that includes sustainable tourism and sustainable agriculture. But we have not been trying hard enough. We have been using the word 'sustainable' in all sorts of oxymoronic contexts (like sustainable mining), while practising 'unsustainable' everything else.
Maybe when sustainable fisheries brings sustainable prosperity in that sector, we may see some change on a national level.
Peter Espeut is a sociologist and a Roman Catholic deacon.