Every day when fishers prepare to go out to sea, they put themselves at risk of bad weather and unpredictable conditions. For several reasons the fishers often need to go quite far from the coast. Frequently they sail offshore poorly prepared for any eventuality, lacking adequate equipment and with scant training on safety at sea procedures. This is particularly the case for small scale fishers in the Eastern Caribbean countries. Thus, the Climate Change Adaptation of the fisheries sector in the Eastern Caribbean project (CC4FISH) has set to work with the pertinent fisheries authorities and fisherfolk organizations (FFOs) to address fishers’ risks at sea by strengthening their resilience to livelihood threats through various activities, including:

• Provision of 1 100 VHF radios to improve safety at sea and building of repeater systems to increase the range of VHF radios in four project countries. See news.
• Training of 1 200 fisherfolk in safety at sea, engine repair, value adding activities, fish handling and processing and other kinds of capacity building activities to enhance safety of fisherfolk; increase income through value adding and decrease fish waste; enhance private sector engagement. See news.
• Third-party fishing vessel insurance assessment to decrease risk exposure of fisherfolk to climate change related extreme weather events. Click here to access publication.