Volume 76
Fishing opportunities associated with the pelagic sargassum ecosystem in Barbados
Authors
Alleyne, K., Micaela Small, Makeda Corbin, Henri Valles and Hazel Oxenford Download PDF Open PDF in BrowserOther Information
Date: November, 2023
Event: Proceedings of the Seventy-Sixth Annual Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute
City: Nassau
Country: The Bahamas
Abstract
The fisheries sector of Barbados, like much of the Eastern Caribbean, is an integral component of the culture, economy and food security. Mass accumulations of pelagic sargassum (Sargassum natans and S. fluitans) in the Tropical Atlantic, across the Caribbean and off the coast of West Africa, threaten the state of fisheries in Caribbean SIDS (Speede et al., 2018; Oxenford et al., 2019). However, while it is true that mass proliferations and subsequent influx events of pelagic sargassum brought new navigation and harvesting challenges to fishery sectors, there are recent reports of fishers utilizing this floating ecosystem to target various fish species. Over the last two years, Barbadian fishers have been using satellite images, to target large sargassum rafts in pursuit of almaco jacks (Seriola rivoliana) (Dr. Shelly-Ann Cox, pers. comm., Barbados).