4. Meeting fisheries needs

4.1. Facts and figures

The long-term sustainability of fisheries in SIDS has been threatened by overexploitation of living marine resources, land-based pollution, as well as inadequate fisheries monitoring control and surveillance systems at both the national and regional levels.

In general, inshore capture fisheries adjacent to centers of urban population are heavily fished, if not over-fished. Offshore capture fisheries and associated processing activities provide major economic benefits for some SIDS. Management of inshore fisheries in SIDS is now taking increasingly into account traditional resource use practices, which served to regulate the exploitation and conserve these resources in the past.

For some SIDS, exports of tuna, pearls, shrimp and deepwater species are important sources of revenue. However, over the last decade, prices for some of these species, and notably tuna, have stagnated. Despite some increases in export volumes, the total revenue received by SIDS from these exports has showed only marginal change.

The licensing of foreign fishing vessels in exclusive economic zones (EEZs) is particularly important for some SIDS that lack the capacity to harvest the resources themselves. In some instances, revenue from access fees forms a significant proportion of national income. In cases where fees are linked to current world fish prices, the fluctuations in prices creates instability in national revenue and in turn increases the vulnerability of SIDS and dependence on external support.

The main factors that constrain the development and management of the fisheries sector in island States include a lack of institutional and human capacity in both the public and private sectors, complexities of inshore fisheries management, post-harvest losses, poorly developed safety regulations for fishing vessels and fledging and under-developed national fishing industries for the harvesting and processing of offshore resources.

Recognizing the need to cooperate regionally on fisheries matters of common concern, some SIDS groupings have put in place effective regional mechanisms to facilitate collaboration and joint activities concerning the development and management of fisheries. This cooperation, which is encouraged, focuses on ensuring that resources are sustainably utilized and that SIDS derive benefit from the exploitation of their stocks by foreign fishers.

4.2. FAO action in SIDS

The objectives and proposed actions of the FAO Plan of Action on Agriculture in SIDS in this field are as follows:

• to improve EEZ fisheries conservation and management by promoting traditional institutions and community-based fishery management, by coordinating a set of policies, by relocating inshore fisheries effort for the offshore, by promoting private investment, by implementing the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, by strengthening effective surveillance of fisheries activities;
• to enhance aquaculture development and inland fisheries by introducing or strengthening aquaculture, by ensuring compatibility with ecosystems, by establishing information networks;
• to improve post-harvest fish management, marketing and processing by assessing domestic market and export potentials, by assessing requirements for marketing installations, by identifying investment needs.

In line with these objectives, FAO has supported the development of fisheries of SIDS in the fields of fisheries statistics and information systems, utilization of fish waste, policy framework and strategic planning for fisheries and aquaculture, alternative fish feeding, fisheries management, aquaculture development, customary marine fishery tenure, monitoring, control and surveillance, safety standards for small fishing vessels, quality insurance/HACCP-based fish inspection systems, health management in shrimp aquaculture, seaweed farming, participation in MEDFISIS (Mediterranean information) and ecosystem-based management.

More specifically, the FAO fisheries programme for Caribbean SIDS contains the following six components: institutional strengthening and national capacity-building; enhanced conservation and management of EEZ fisheries; improved post-harvest fisheries management and marketing; safety at sea; strengthening the economic role of national fisheries industries and the privatization of fisheries investments; aquaculture development and inland fisheries conservation, management and development.

The Western Central Atlantic Fishery Commission (WECAFC), based in Barbados, promotes international cooperation for the conservation, development and sustainable utilization of the living marine resources of the Western Central Atlantic Ocean Area. WECAFC activities are implemented through ad hoc working groups based on geography/ecosystem (e.g. WECAFC ad hoc Working Group on Shrimp and Groundfish Fisheries in the Brazil-Guyana Shelf) or on species (e.g. WECAFC ad hoc Working Group on Caribbean Spiny Lobster and WECAFC ad hoc Working Group on Flyingfish in the Eastern Caribbean) or on specific subjects (e.g. Anchored Fish Attracting Devices for small-scale fisheries) of interest to the member countries. Other regions are well served by organizations that promote sustainable practices in fisheries.

An interregional project, Responsible Fisheries for SIDS, targeting South Pacific, Indian Ocean and Caribbean SIDS was initiated in 2002. It aims at strengthening the capacity of SIDS' fisheries administrations to promote and facilitate responsible fisheries through the deeper and broader implementation of the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries.

FAO has also been developing tailored instruments for SIDS. Documents officially published within the Fishery Law Advisory Programme have been prepared for Barbados, Cape Verde, Caribbean, Comoros, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Maldives, Saint Lucia, Seychelles, the South Pacific and Tonga.

Examples of recent projects in fisheries include:

• Strengthening coastal fisheries legislation in the Pacific Island States of Micronesia;
• Development of standard for the construction and survey of small fishing vessels in Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States;
• Preparation for an expansion of the domestic fisheries for large pelagic species by the countries of the Caribbean community (CARICOM);
• Development of a policy framework and strategic plan for sustainable fisheries management in Jamaica;
• Reduction of environmental impact from tropical shrimp trawling through the introduction of by-catch reduction technologies and change of management in Bahrain and Trinidad and Tobago;
• Assistance concerning flag States' responsibilities for fishing vessels under UN Conventions in Seychelles;
• Assistance in fisheries and marine resources management, policy and legislation in Maldives;
• Scientific basis for ecosystem-based management in the Lesser Antilles, including interactions with marine mammals and other top predators in Grenada;
• Study on formulation of national fisheries management plan for sharks in Marshall Islands and Papua New Guinea.

4.3. Issues and challenges

Effective fisheries management, implementation of national and international legal instruments, capacity building and institutional strengthening, statistical systems and good governance are the key issues for fisheries development in SIDS. They imply the sustainable and responsible development, management and utilization of both inshore and offshore fisheries resources.

Since the early 1990s, two important new concepts in fisheries management have emerged and have entered the fisheries vocabulary and practice. These concepts are long-term sustainability and responsible fisheries¹⁰. International fora and resolutions have called upon States to ratify and implement international fishery instruments as a means of strengthening fisheries conservation and management. Instruments referred to, in particular, are the 1993 FAO Compliance Agreement and the 1995 UN Fish Stocks Agreement. The FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, a voluntary instrument embracing all aspects of fisheries, provides a comprehensive framework for governments and other stakeholders to implement long-term sustainable practices in fisheries. The Code sets out principles and international standards of behaviour for responsible practices with a view to ensuring the effective conservation, management and development of living aquatic resources, with due respect for the ecosystem and biodiversity. The Code recognizes the nutritional, economic, social, environmental and cultural importance of fisheries and the interests of all those concerned with the fishery sector. States and all those involved in fisheries are encouraged to apply the Code and give effect to it. The commitment of SIDS, which has already been well demonstrated, towards the implementation of these binding and voluntary international instruments can be expected to have major beneficial impacts on the future development and management of fisheries.

¹⁰ In many SIDS these concepts were well known and understood in view of the need, in the past, to ensure that current resource use practices did not prejudice future resource access.