Volume 74
Puerto Rico’s Commercial Fishery Census 2019: The fishing industry in the two years after Hurricane María
Authors
Matos-Caraballo. D; L. A. Rivera-Padilla; J. León-Fernandez; W. Santiago-Soler; M. Ricaurte-Chica; A. Alvarez-De La Cruz Download PDF Open PDF in BrowserOther Information
Date: November. 2021
Pages: 233
Event: Proceedings of the Seventy-four Annual Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute
City: Virtual
Country: Virtual
Abstract
Puerto Rico’s fishery usually has approximately 800-1,000 active commercial fishers. On September 20th, 2021, the entire island was impacted by Hurricane María, which made landfall on the southeast corner of Puerto Rico and wreaked havoc for approximately 24 hours with strong winds, surges, and flooding. In its wake, the hurricane left behind a heavily damaged electrical grid and weakened and destroyed infrastructure, and it resulted in thousands of deaths. Within the fishery sector, the storm caused the widespread destruction of fishing villages, docks, ramps, fishing vessels, fishing gear, fish houses, and homes. Over 2019, personnel of the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources (DNER) interviewed commercial fishers to collect data as part of a census study for completion of a total of 686 commercial fisher interviews, which represented the active fishery component in all coastal municipalities.