Abstract

The Caribbean Fishery Management Council has determined that several species in the US Caribbean EEZ require harvest reduction. MRAG Americas and NOAA Fisheries jointly conducted two series of workshops at several locations with commercial fishers of Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands to determine their attitudes toward capacity and effort reduction (“limited entry”) programs, as a potential part of the management scenario in the US Caribbean. Fishers generally preferred a system that limited entry to “genuine” fishers, those who derived substantial income from fishing. A preference for license limitation, used in this sense, was virtually universal. However, Puerto Rico fishers did not want to limit the total number of genuine fishers, while USVI fishers supported a limit on numbers. Different regions of the USVI had different views on appropriate limited entry. Any efforts to establish a limited entry program in Puerto Rico will require extensive consultation and education of fishers, and a common Federal/State program seems unlikely in the near future.\Most fishers felt that other limited entry/capacity reduction methods would overly restrict flexibility of fishers. Fishers commonly stated that small boats used in the US Caribbean do not have enough fishing power to cause a resource problem. Fishers face many socio-economic obstacles, have few economic opportunities other than fishing, and felt that management restrictions directly reduced their standard of living. Fishers in the USVI recommended financial and technical assistance for local efforts to develop a license limitation plans. Fishers, especially in Puerto Rico, stated a desire to have greater input into management decisions, and recommended future activities to enhance consultation and cooperation between government agencies and fishers.

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