Abstract

The Puerto Rico Fishing Regulations #7949, limited the commercial ornamental fishery just to 29 species of fish and shellfish. The commercial ornamental fishers must obtain a license and a special permit to legally establish their busi-ness. They are obligated by Puerto Rico’s Fishery Regulations 7949 to report they catch to the Puerto Rico’s Department of Natural and Environmental Resources (DNER) thru the Commercial Statistics Program. The data collected from the com-mercial ornamental fishers has been entered in computers and analyzed by the authors.A total of 163,828 individual were caught and reported from ornamental commercial fishers in Puerto Rico during 2010-15. The most caught reported species was the Royal Gramma (Gramma loretto), representing 21% from the total catch (34,851 fishes). Follow by Blue chromis (Chromis cyanea) 10%, Emerald crab (Mythrax sculptus) 9%, Green band-ed goby (Tigrigobius multifasciatus) 9% and Yellowhead Jawfish (Opistognathus aurifrons) 7%, Approximately 70% of the catch was exported from Puerto Rico to other countries. On the other hand, it was estimated that $400,000 resulted from the wholesale ornamental fishery activity. This paper discusses the number of individuals caught by species and by year. A total of 10 fishermen settled their commercial ornamental fish landings. Also, the paper will discuss the price per species and gross profit of this fishery.

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