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Anguilla represented at two recent regional fisheries forums in St Lucia
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| Published on Saturday, August 15, 2009 | Email To Friend Print Version
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THE VALLEY, Anguilla -- Anguilla was recently represented at two regional fisheries forums in St Lucia. The first event was a two-day Caribbean workshop on international fisheries management hosted by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO); where participants were exposed to the Canadian approach to fisheries management.
Canada has a long history of fishing and fisheries management and their system is recognised as one of, if not the best in the world.
Goals of the workshop included: to highlight the need to prevent overfishing and to ensure proper fisheries management; to engage in dialogue with other countries and to work with each other to enhance capacities to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing; to build greater understanding of the importance of Regional Fisheries Management Organisations; and why Caribbean States should participate in them; and to identify and facilitate further opportunities for collaboration regionally and internationally, including joint scientific research.
Participants were invited from fisheries agencies, law enforcement and security agencies, and ministries of foreign affairs in all of the CARICOM and OECS States. Attending from Anguilla were Sergeant Eversley Browne of the Royal Anguilla Police Force Marine Unit, Ensor Gumbs, Principal Assistant Secretary in the Chief Minister’s Office, and James Gumbs Director of Fisheries and Marine Resources.
The representatives from DFO in Canada indicated that they envisaged the workshop as the first phase of a possible ongoing education and technical assistance programme to the region, and Anguilla has already positioned itself to pursue immediate and informal support in the form of model fisheries legislation, fisheries related data collection forms and fishing vessel log books, and copies of staff operational manuals for Fisheries Officers and Data Collectors.
Further and more formal support will be pursued and this may include on the job training attachments in Canada for Fisheries Officers at the Department of Fisheries and Marine Resources.
Immediately following the fisheries management workshop was the Seventh Meeting of the Caribbean Fisheries Forum. The Caribbean Fisheries Forum is the decision making body of the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM), which has been in existence since March of 2003.
The CRFM is an inter-governmental organization with a mission to ‘promote and facilitate the responsible utilisation of the Region’s fisheries and other aquatic resources for the economic and social benefits of the current and future population of the region’.
The participating countries in CRFM are: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and The Turks and Caicos Islands.
The Director of Fisheries represented Anguilla at the Forum. Major discussion points at the meeting were:
the draft annual work plan and budget; the appraisal and status of the contracts of the Executive Director and the Deputy Executive Director of the CRFM Secretariat; the report of the annual scientific meeting; the external financial audit for the programme year 2007 / 08; and a fisheries project funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency.
At the meeting Anguilla was elected as Vice-Chair of the Forum for the programme year 2009 / 10, and as such is expected to take up the Chair of the Forum at the next meeting in 2010, which is likely to be held in Anguilla. | | | | Reads : 973 | | | |
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