Abstract

As fisheries stock assessment lost terrain in the wider Caribbean in providing responses to sustainable fisheries, and marine reserves showed up in the world map as the “promising land” for both protecting biodiversity and managing fisheries resources, many marine fisheries scientists in the region switched gears to investigating more “conservation” related questions such as essential fish habitats, vulnerable ecological processes and life stages, biogeographic divisions of the world, and others, in their quest for better understanding marine biological resources and the impact of human use. The increasing use of marine protected areas and their resources as the scenario and subject of research projects is reflected in the papers presented, the sessions and workshops, and the transformation of our membership. In the last years, as scientists became more aware of the imperative to apply their research results to management, fishers, MPA and fisheries managers, regulators and planners became an increasing part of our membership. This paper provides a historical overview of this process by describing the main contents of the papers related to marine conservation and marine protected areas, the breakthroughs of both the scientific subject and the audience, and the transformation of the Institute role as a catalyzer of conservation measures in the Wider Caribbean.

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