Abstract

Jamaica’s off-shore reef fisheries make an important contribution to the total national catch, and they employ hundreds of people who exploit these remote reef resources from tiny, oceanic cays. The status of these off-shore. fisheries, and their organization, are little known. The Morant Cays is the second largest Jamaican off-shore reef fishery which exploits several small shallow hanks south east of Jamaica. The Morant Cays and the banks around them are. also of great scientific interest because of the assemblage of endangered organisms they support, and as a control site in the study of the severely degraded inshore reefs. This study represents the first detailed assessment of the artisanal offshore reef fishery of the Morant Cays. It documents the present status of the fishery by examining catch and effort data to determine catch per unit effort, individual fish weights, catch composition, and mean length of the most common species. The study also describes the characteristics of the fishing community, the fishing activities and techniques, and the relative proportions of fish within the various categories of fish sold, consumed and discarded. Preliminary conclusions are. drawn on the degree to which the Morant Cays have been impacted by fishing activities and recommendations are made for appropriate conservation strategies.

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