Abstract

The Dominican Republic is known for being reliant on the harvest of the country’s marine resources, yet the country battles to utilize available data channels to develop responsible management practices. Lack of data utilization is especially apparent in the recreational fishery, being there is little national data collection from this fishery. Recreational anglers travel from all over the world to pursue pelagic species in the Dominican Republic. A recreational fishing industry throughout the coastal areas of the country means a large effort for these pelagic species, as well as a high catch rate. The effort and catch rate from recreational anglers could supply valuable data channels for ICCAT and similar pelagic fishery management or-ganizations. Pelagic fishery managers rely heavily on the collection of accurate and quality data to determine proper man-agement responses, having to utilize all possible channels due to the difficult nature of determining highly migratory species local populations. Stock assessments employing inaccurate data will portray faulty populations resulting in improper management of these fisheries, endangering the species being studied, along with the communities dependent on them. De-veloped countries contain administrations responsible for conducting these studies and producing stock assessments. These administrations utilize quality data collections systems to assure they receive the most accurate available data to support their findings. Less developed countries, such as some throughout the Caribbean, do not have similar government entities to complete these stock assessments. Increasing fishery monitoring and data collection efforts could greatly benefit the stock assessments in previously data-poor fisheries.

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