Photo by Noel Thompson
Fisherman Dwight Moxam rolls his fishing pot towards his boat at the Calabash Bay Fishing Village in Treasure Beach, St Elizabeth, as he prepares to head off to his fishing expedition. Climate change is being blamed for declining fish stock in Jamaica and the Caribbean.

Gareth Manning, Sunday Gleaner Reporter

IN RESPONSE to a recent Gleaner story which related that scientists had zeroed in on climate change and the global warming phenomenon as the major factor driving shoals of fish from Caribbean waters, University of the West Indies lecturer, Dr Karl Aiken says this is not entirely true.

While not throwing cold water on global warming and its threat to the local fishing industry, Aiken says that blaming climate change is an excuse by some to nullify the impact of rapid and uncontrolled development of the coastline on the fishing industry. He tells The Sunday Gleaner that the threat of fish migration to more frigid waters due to a rise in sea temperature is grossly exaggerated and that it is important for people to be more concerned about events that can be controlled.

Rapid, poorly planned development

According to the scientist, rapid and poorly planned development are twin problems responsible for the pollution of Jamaica's marine environment. Marine pollution kills coral and mangroves, which serve as nurseries and feeding grounds for various species of fish and other marine life. When their breeding grounds are threatened or destroyed, fish will migrate to more favourable conditions, usually cleaner, cooler waters.

"My contention is we need to spend more time reducing uncontrolled and rampant overdevelopment of the coastal regions with hotels and places that put untreated sewage into the sea, and then try and pin the decline of the fisheries on global warming," he argues.

"It (global warming) is part of the issue, but another part of the issue - a major and growing part - is this uncontrolled development of the coastal zones," he adds.

Negative image

Aiken says while coastal development is needed, it should be regulated and managed. Jamaica, he continues, has developed a negative image because it does not carefully research and plan how it will pursue development.

But he is not only blaming over-development for the damage to reduction in fish production. Continued bad practices, such as overfishing, he notes, still play a large part in the migration of fish. Dynamiting is still a heavy feature of fishing in Jamaica today, with reports of the practice still occurring in areas such as Port Royal and Old Harbour Bay, visited by The Sunday Gleaner recently.

Aiken argues that to solve the issue, more effort is needed to establish marine-protected areas, a regional movement that Jamaica has been slow to follow. Marine protected areas are simply beach reserves which are cropped off to allow a stock of marine life to thrive and reproduce, with very little interference from humans. According to him, the lack of these reserves is cause for the decline of marine fish production.

The one-time deputy director of the Fisheries Division in the Agriculture Ministry says having protected areas can add value to the tourism industry as it leaves space for activities such as snorkelling and diving.

"What is clearly needed for the industry is far better support from the Government," argues Aiken. "They (successive administrations) have been consistently giving less to the fishing industry, leaving it resourceless to carry out its functions of monitoring and managing the industry."

Aiken added: "It increased a little bit (in the 1970s) and then has been steadily whittled away over the years. And, of course, the Fisheries Division has had to do more and more with less and less."