ecology and sustainability of marine ornamental fisheries in puerto rico antares ramos Álvarez, msc...
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ECOLOGY AND SUSTAINABILITY OF MARINE ORNAMENTAL
FISHERIES IN PUERTO RICO
Antares Ramos Álvarez, MSc (DPhil Candidate)Tropical Ecology Group, Department of Zoology
University of Oxford
Starting January:Coral Management Liaison & Coastal Specialist
for Puerto RicoNOAA’s Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource
Management
OVERVIEW
• Introduction to ornamental fisheries in Puerto Rico
• Introduction to overall project (DPhil)• Preliminary findings• Recommendations
Ornamental Fisheries in Puerto Rico• Started in the early 1970s• Fishing Law of 1998-Regulated for the first
time through permits and spp. quotas• Limit to 20 export fish species and 8
invertebrates in 2004 Fishing Regulation (from over 100 reported) due to fear of over-exploitation – Precautionary Principle
• List of permitted species taken from list of exports
• Currently: ~15 fishermen with permits• Export mainly to USA (Wood 2001)
Overview of Ornamental Fisheries
• First 10 species account for 73% of exports, where 42% Gramma loreto (37,560 indiv., $72,120) (Ojeda et al.)
• Rapid biodiversity assessment showed that export ornamental fish are being captured below the established quota (LeGore Environmental Associates, Inc., 2006)
Sustainability of Ornamental fisheries in Puerto Rico (DPhil)
• Ecological assessment: population counts of spp (fish and inverts) that are not of commercial (edible) importance and habitat assessment
• Public policy (laws and management) • Market forces• User perspectives: ornamental and
commercial (small-scale) fishermen
Focus of study
• Explore if list of permitted species has ecological validity
• Ground-truth list with goal of adding/removing species from list
• Market analysis of industry in PR• Socio-economic background of trade• Enforcement and management
mechanisms• Policy recommendations
Preliminary results
• Market-unclear if there would be demand if fishery were opened
• Sustainability-currently comparing population assessments with market demands
• Enforcement-lack of implementation• Habitat-in peril• Currently very few fishermen export
Preliminary recommendations• Fishery should not be opened-management
must continue and must improve• Species list-may be room to expand• Keep quotas-may be room to increase• Enforcement-need for educational/training
material (will hopefully come out of study’s grant); need for better enforcement mechanisms
• Market-there might be room for more fishermen, however, a limit in permits (especially exporting permits) should be established
Funding bodies and collaborators:
•Department of Zoology-University of Oxford
•NOAA-Coral Reef Conservation Program General Grant
•Caribbean Coral Reef Institute
•University of Puerto Rico-Marine Campus
•Columbus Zoo and Aquarium
•Sea Grant –Mayagüez