Abstract

I started to study the Puerto Rico’s Fishery since 1988. At that time I was named the Principal Investigator of the Puerto Rico’s Department of Natural and Environmental Resources (DNER) Commercial Fisheries Statistics Program (CFSP). Thus, I completed my first 30 years studying the Puerto Rico’s commercial fisheries. The success of the CFSP to reach every goal during the last 30 years was strong confidence among commercial fishers and CFSP personnel, through commu-nication and education. Thirty years ago, Puerto Rico’s commercial fishery was regulated by Law No. 83 of May 13th, 1936. This law contained numerous regulations pertaining to the conservation of fish resources. For example, it banned dynamite fishing and the use of nets in the mouth of rivers and forbid the use of underwater corrals. Between 1979 and 1988, Puerto Rico’s was observed a trend of landings decreased. In addition, the dominant commercial grouper species since the 1950s and 1960’s, the Nassau grouper (Epinephelus striatus) vanished from the commercial fishery around 1989. Other Puerto Rico fishery resources also showed symptoms of overfishing such as red hind (Epinephelus guttatus), mutton snapper (Lutjanus analis), queen conch (Strombus gigas) and lobsters (Panulirus argus). The government’s scientific per-sonnel concern over the decreasing populations of local fisheries prompted government agencies to improve regulations and management of these resources. Commercial fishers also came to CFSP to ask for conservation measures to conserve fisheries resources. Thus, the CFSP was part of the effort to improve the fishery conservation to keep the commercial fish-ing activity. This challenge was achieved thru Law No. 278, of November 29, 1998, Puerto Rico’s, also known as Puerto Rico Fishing Law.

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