Fishery Regulations in the Wider Caribbean Region. Project Summary

Overfishing has been identified as a major problem affecting marine ecosystems and is acknowledged as a global threat to biodiversity. The FAO estimates that between 69% to 74% of fish stocks globally are overfished or fully exploited Fisheries restrictions are used to manage and conserve fisheries resources. In the Caribbean these restrictions come in different forms (gear, species, effort interventions) and are implemented at a range of spatial scales. They may be implemented at a local scale e.g. marine protected areas, no take, catch and release areas, FCMZs (fisheries conservation and management zones), or in territorial waters and EEZs. This may mean a spectrum of interventions from restrictions on some gears at some times all the way through to a completely closed area protected from any anthropogenic impact. MPA Definition: IUCN has defined an MPA as ‘any area of inter-tidal or sub-tidal terrain, together with its overlying water and associated flora, fauna, historical and cultural features, which has been reserved by law or other effective means to protect part or all of the enclosed environment’. Globally, less than 1% of the planets marine environment is categorised as protected, and less than 0.01% as no-take zones. All of these areas may directly or indirectly benefit fisheries resources in the area and in adjacent waters. Previous studies have catalogued and analysed the benefits of no take zones. This study is intended to present information on all of the fishery related restrictions that are present in MPAs of the region. No-take zone definition: ‘areas of the sea completely protected from all extractive activities. Within a reserve, all biological resources are protected through prohibitions on fishing and the removal or disturbance of any living or non-living marine resource, except as necessary for monitoring or research to evaluate reserve effectiveness’.