A co-management approach is being heralded as the way forward for the sea-eye fishery.
The Fisheries Division of Barbados, along with other stakeholders, has adopted this
approach in an attempt to breathe new life into the sea-eye fishery.
Adaptive co-management is a relatively new concept, fusing together adaptive management
which is a dynamic learning process and co-management, which is a partnership between the state,
government, resource users, sea-eye divers and other stakeholders in a management approach
working towards a common goal to manage a fishery that's in crisis.
There have been efforts since the latter part of the 1990s to try and get stakeholders,
fishermen, participants in the fishery to work with government to make decisions in
terms of management of the sea-eye fishery.
You now realise that top-down approaches to management isn't the way forward and the
best thing is to engage the stakeholders at the bottom so that they could facilitate change.
A lot of the approaches that are being discussed right now are very well-aligned with and conducive
to a long-term successful sea-eye fishery.
One envisages an arrangement where the resources are surveyed each year by fishers or with
the help of fishers which is happening now and the estimates are made of what is a reasonable
amount to take for the year and it's taken by serious licensed sea-eye fishers and when
that amount is taken the fishery stops so that we have each year the maximum amount
of sea-eye coming out of the sea that the environment can produce for that year and
it's going to fluctuate from year to year so it has to be that kind of a system.
Every year we do a survey of the fisheries, we cut off our area and we have a quodge.
A quodge is a four-meter square and we measure and reckon these days within that squatch.
There's a formula that the fisheries work out how to assess how much sea-eye is in the
area.
They also measure the size of the sea-eye, the growth of the sea-eye.
When I do the survey I have to give a description of the grung, what it looks like, the vegetation
on the grung, if it's a grabber rock grung, if it's a grung that has a lot of moss, which
we say is a brunagli, why there's no sea-eye there, when there's good vegetation there.
It's myself and two more fellas have gone with me to control the boat and help me check
the survey and then there are another boat from Oysteins that does go again.
I normally does from Atlantic shores up to Folbe.
Then he would do from Crane over to Ragged Point and then they got some fellas that said
John would do from Ragged Point right over to Bathsheba and then they got some fellas
from Saint Lucino who would do from Cove right the way around to Mayor Cockmay.
There's a particular site that I must focus on and carry out that survey upon that every
time and that's how the fisheries depend on us to bring in this data to them.
At the end of the surveys we meet with the fishermen who were involved in conducting
them and collectively decide on what is to happen that season.
For example there is to be a season and get a good idea as from them as to the length
of any season that should be allowed.
So as such they are definitely part of the integral part of the management process.
If you're going to get buy-in from stakeholders they have to trust that they are participating
in something that will benefit them and that they will not be disadvantaged so yes trust
and mutual trust is important because a lot of the information of course that even government
the government side relies on comes from stakeholders so we have to trust that information
as well so there has to be a huge deal of mutual trust.
If the government takes heed of this novel approach to management and really start the
ball going and have learning and everything is dynamic and everybody is excited then maybe
in a couple of years we could have some sea eggs on our plate and we must reinforce that
adaptive co-management is a process.
We have to be patient and committed to a long term process.
