by
Cheryl Jardine
Fisheries Division
Kingstown, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
[email protected]
INTRODUCTION
The flyingfish fishery does not constitute an important or significant component of the commercial fisheries of SaintVincent and the Grenadines. Less than 1 tonne is landed and recorded annually and this accounts for less than 1 % of the total pelagic landings.
Flyingfish is taken opportunistically by the pelagic fleet, which comprises 300 open boats and 1 500 full and part-time fishermen. It is used as bait, when there is a scarcity of the small coastal pelagics (jacks and robin).
OBJECTIVE
The main objectives of the current analyses were:
to examine the data set more closely for errors and omissions and to examine seasonal, spatial and annual trends, in fishing activities;
to develop a standardized catch and effort series for the Saint Lucian flyingfish fishery; and
to attempt to use the national data sets to estimate total landings and to determine stock abundance trends.
DATA ANALYSIS
A proper national flyingfish data set for Saint Vincent and the Grenadines does not exist by virtue of the little harvesting effort that fishers direct toward the resource. Data on landings of flyingfish seldom show up on market forms and in the catch and effort data collected at the landing sites around Saint Vincent and the Grenadines hence, the unavailability of data to be analysed. At present the resource remains underutilized and there are no specific management regulations in place.
