Fisheries Management Techniques in the Bahamas

The goal of our project was to answer the following questions by immersing ourselves in Bahamian fisheries: how sustainable are Bahamian fisheries? What management techniques are being used to protect fisheries, and how can they be improved? What fisheries and resource management lessons can be learned from the Bahamian islands? How can we take these lessons and apply them to other resource management issues? To answer these questions we spent time exploring the island and talking with local fishermen. We hoped to learn about how they interact with the fisheries and what, if any, management steps they either abided by or took on their own.

The methodology behind our research was based on three main components: background research, informal interviews, and field observations.

Our informal interviews were conducted with a variety of local fishers and residents. By interviewing a diverse group of stakeholders, we hoped to gain a complete understanding of the state of Bahamian fisheries and their management. One thing we were particularly curious about is how local fishers understood and felt about Bahamian fisheries regulations.

The bulk of our research was conducted through field observations and experiential learning. We spent time with local fishermen, observing their sustainable hook and line practices. Spending time in the field helped us develop a more nuanced understanding of the sustainable and unsustainable fishing techniques practiced in the Bahamas and their subsequent outcomes.

There was the loose expectation that we would find a bustling fishery spurred on by increasing tourism following the COVID-19 pandemic; instead, we found an island in disrepair. Abandoned airstrips lay on the northern and southern tips of the island, homes sat boarded up or overtaken by vegetation, and harbors were empty, strewn with the wreckage of old boats. The most striking example of the island's past prosperity and its subsequent decline was the Diamond Crystal Salt Flats. Covering 25,000 acres and almost 20 miles of the island's coast, the salt flats employed hundreds and provided economic stability for 12 years, from 1970 to 1982.

Like many parts of the island, the Crystal Diamond Salt Flats now sit abandoned. What was once the economic engine of Long Island is now a modest fishery. Each night a handful of locals descend onto the network of crumbling dikes that crisscross the flat system. They are there to target Grey Snapper and White Crabs using homemade handlines and repurposed nets. Speaking with these fishers revealed they primarily fish for subsistence, with a select few selling their catch to local restaurants. Hardly any of these fishers had anything to say about fishing regulations. Fisheries management took a back seat to their daily challenges. Most, if not all, targeted abundant species which had no restrictions.

Interestingly enough, it was a non-fisher who had the most to say regarding the state of Bahamian fisheries. Leonard Cartwright, whose family ties to long Island stretch back generations, shared that the most pressing issue facing Bahamian fisheries are poachers and the lack of regulation enforcement. Because the Bahamas is such a vast archipelago, consisting of roughly 600 islands, it is impossible to police all of its waters. Mr. Cartwright expressed his displeasure with the ease poachers from the United States and nearby Caribbean islands can make the journey into unspoiled Bahamian waters, fish as they please, and then depart for home, freezers filled with fillets.

Every year the oceans become warmer and more acidic. Indiscriminate commercial fishing techniques like bottom trawling have rendered global fish stocks from an incomprehensibly vast resource to something finite. Sustainable fishing techniques practiced by individuals and villages along much of the world's coastlines are becoming increasingly at risk because of these and similar factors. We used our Venture Grant to immerse ourselves in the culture and techniques of subsistence fishers. By better understanding what we are losing, perhaps we can move toward a future of food security and sustainability as they relate to fishing. Ecological imbalances like the overpopulation of the invasive Indigopacific Lionfish, combined with years of overfishing keystone species like Conch and Nassau grouper, as well as warming and acidifying oceans, have created a perfect storm that threatens the seafood stocks throughout the Bahamas.

Reefs and near-shore ecosystems within Bahamian waters represent not only a refuge and nursery for fish and other marine animals but also a vital economic, cultural, and food resource. Because of this, the ecological degradation of marine environments threatens the Bahamian population's access to a sustainable food source and a significant cultural and economic resource.

By spending time with local fishers, we learned they rarely engage in the management of local resources, and that they have an even smaller impact on these resources. The decline of Long Island's fisheries is not a story of local exploitation, but one of poaching and inadequate regulatory enforcement. From the anecdotes of Mr. Cartwright, it would seem that we should expect the worst from people, that if given a chance, people will poach and ignore regulations. Such actions are especially concerning when perpetrated by aliens. If the resources necessary to curtail such unlawful incursions do not exist, as in the Bahamas, it might pay dividends for larger developed nations to assist. The United States and other developed countries should consider assisting adjacent island nations with fisheries management and fighting to curtail poachers from encroaching on unprotected and vulnerable waters. Doing so could help ensure a sustainable future of fisheries management and seafood harvest.

Our time on Long Island defied our expectations and helped to reshape how we view island nations, the problems they face, and their precarious future. From this experience, our biggest takeaway was that regulating wild places and natural resources, must be done intentionally. As apparent in the Bahamas, gaps in regulation inevitably lead to misuse. A structure of education and perhaps more importantly, enforcement that encourages people to provide and recreate sustainably regardless of nationality or socioeconomic status would ensure that there exists no room for abuse of resources.