SOOKNANAN Takchand, better known as Eric, has been a small-scale seabob fisher in Guyana for more than 50 years. He started fishing at age nine to support his mother and younger siblings. Whatever he caught, Eric either sold or took home for family meals.

Today, a husband and father of four, Eric forms part of Guyana’s small-scale seabob industry, which contributes to almost 2 percent of the country’s total seabob landings. He mostly harvests seabob (coarse shrimp) and white belly shrimp (fine shrimp) which are first dried, then peeled before being sold fresh in local markets.

Guyana is the world’s largest producer of Atlantic seabob, a commercially important shrimp harvested from the Atlantic Coast. “Most Guyanese use a lot of seafood, especially Seabob. It is a daily meal for us.” Eric relates.

Both industrial trawlers and small-scale fishers harvest seabob in Guyana. The industrial catches are processed into frozen, peeled shrimp to supply local and international markets, while the catches of the small-scale fishers are sold fresh in the local markets.

Small-scale seabob fishers use the Chinese seine gear, which Eric explains, is designed so that the current of the spring tide steers the catch into the fixed position of the nets; then later, when the tide recedes, they haul the nets aboard and collect their catches. This, they believe, is an environmentally friendly method of fishing since it is stationary and used on a small scale.

Eric conveys that small-scale fishery allows him to provide a stable livelihood for his family and educational opportunities for his children. He hopes that the 30-plus fisherfolk operating at Goed Fortuin landing site can form an association to have a greater impact at the national level, in addressing issues such as declining stocks, more favourable duty-free concessions, piracy, acquiring boat licences, training for captain’s licences and other important concerns of small-scale fisherfolk.

Eric and Atlantic seabob fisheries in Guyana are benefiting from FISH4ACP, a global initiative led by the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) implemented by FAO and partners with funding from the European Union (EU) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).