Abstract

Haiti has the second largest coastline of the Caribbean islands, underscoring a considerable potential in marine resources. However, the finfish fishery in Haiti is currently unable to satisfy local consumer demand; Haiti imports most of the finfish products it consumes and the average finfish consumption per person is well below the world average. Here, we first review the body of technical work that has focused on the finfish fishery in Haiti in order to provide an overview of the current state and potential of the fishery. The reasons put forward to explain the low productivity of the finfish fishery are numerous and include, among others, over-fishing and the sedimentation of the near-shore, the use of inadequate fishing material and boats, the lack of basic infrastructure for fish conservation, the low degree of organization and training of fishers, and the existence of an inadequate institutional and legal framework. Further. there is great paucity of data on both, the fishery itself and on the status of the resources. Finally, we highlight the various lines of intervention that we believe are necessary to allow the Haitian finfish fishery to develop to a level that will help meet local consumer demand while ensuring the sustainability of the fishery.

PDF Preview