Abstract

Community-based aquaculture initiatives have emerged as a promising approach to create economic opportunities and ease the pressure on wild lobster populations, particularly in SIDS like The Bahamas. This multi-tier project focused on developing aquaculture principles within the Bahamian context and involving local stakeholders, including fishers, to understand their perceptions of the integration of a spiny lobster community-based aquaculture model. The project employs a multifaceted approach, including pueruli collection and husbandry techniques, as well as the introduction of regionally novel grow-out techniques to evaluate the feasibility of small-scale community-based Caribbean spiny lobster aquaculture on Eleuthera, Bahamas. This model would provide valuable knowledge towards achieving sustainable coastal fisheries and aquaculture. Emphasizing stakeholder engagement, collaboration, knowledge sharing, and ecological stewardship, this approach empowers local communities to safeguard their marine resources. Fisher’s capacity to integrate themselves into the aquaculture sector is normally associated towards both: entry and exit barriers. One entry barrier that was constantly mentioned during fisher interviews was economic barriers, high investment and start-up costs were highlighted as a major bottleneck to entry into the aquaculture sector. Additional findings suggested the development of educational documents and training programs to support the transfer of technical knowledge on aquaculture to fishers. Aquaculture-focused outreach programs were suggested as ways to address public perception of aquaculture, possibly ran by Non-governmental organizations and funded by the government. The small pilot projects of our research programme allowed fishers to improve their perceptions to aquaculture on Eleuthera