Jamaica Fish FarmingToday’s Jamaican fisherman has several advantages over his predecessors. The advanced fishing trawlers have sonar, or echo-sounding equipment which allows them to locate schools of fish. So, the fishermen know exactly when to let down their nets. While older trawlers still rely on the salting of Jamaica fish. For thousands of years man has exploited fish in rivers, lakes and the sea. Indeed, fish continue to be an important food resource for man, providing him with protein, fat, minerals and vitamins.
Modern fishing methods, however, show that fish are not an inexhaustible resource. Man has become an expert harvester, as the demands of a growing population cause him to catch fish at a rate faster than nature can replace them. This fact is fundamental to fish farming in Jamaica.
Methods of Fishing
Early man caught fish by hand, spears, and single lines. Modern commercial fishermen use four main methods. Drift nets; these nets catch fish swimming near the surface. Trawling - A cone-shaped net, pulled by a ship called a trawler is used to catch fish such as cod, haddock and hake which swim near the sea floor. This is totally irrelevant if most people today are using and rearing freshwater fish farms in Jamaica.
Seining - This method is common in Jamaica. A net is kept floating vertically in the sea using corks, while two small boats use it to encircle a school of fish. The net is then dragged onto the boats or shore and the trapped fish removed. This was causing major issues as when nets are cut they are thrown back into the sea and wild birds are caught in them and die as a result. This is the reason why many environmentalists are keen on home grown farm freshwater fish in Jamaica.
Lining – In this method long lines with as many as 1000 hooks are towed along by a boat or ship. Bottom fish such as tuna, hake and halibut are sometimes caught in this way. This is a crude way that also disrupts the eco-system. Another strong point why we must move towards establishing an association of Jamaica fish farm.
Today’s Jamaican fisherman has several advantages over his predecessors. This is another important fact specifically with reference to the tilapia fish farm in Jamaica.
The advanced fishing trawlers have sonar, or echo-sounding equipment which allows them to locate schools of fish. So, the fishermen know exactly when to let down their nets. While older trawlers still rely on the salting of catches, most modern boats are equipped with refrigeration plants. Fish can thus be kept fresh and in good condition for longer periods. The Japanese often use floating canneries, and spend the return trip in canning fish caught. When they land, the fish is ready for market. Some major hazards such as fog are now more easily overcome, as radar allows vessels to navigate safely.
The Need for Conservation of Jamaica bay fish
With more than two-thirds of the world covered by sea water, one may well ask, how can the number of fish in the sea run out? Unfortunately for us, the fishing areas and fish in Jamaica bay are not evenly distributed over the seas and oceans grounds of the world. It can be seen that most of these fishing areas are outside the tropics and are very close to the continental landmasses. One can thus see that the major part of the world’s oceans is not used for fishing. The reason for this is that fish food, tiny sea organisms called plankton, is more plentiful in the shallow waters near the landmasses. Plankton forms the start of the food chain in the ocean and is especially important to fish found in Jamaica.
Phyto plankton need sunlight to survive and sunlight does not normally penetrate water below 600 feet (180 meters). The best fishing grounds are therefore located on the shallow continental shelves. Plankton thrives best in cold waters, so the Grand Banks, the Peruvian continental shelf, and the waters off Japan and the Kamchatka Peninsula are all rich in plankton. The mixing of sea water also helps; minerals and organic matter tend to sink to the bottom. Where cold water currents meet warm water, the cold water sinks and chums up mineral-laden water at lower depths. Some areas have water stirred up by the movement of cold currents — a process called upwelling. California, Peru and Chile benefit from this movement.
The end result in all the named areas is plenty of food for fish, resulting in large schools of fish, which can make it difficult identifying fish Jamaica.
Let us look at two areas which have marked differences in terms of climate, fish resources etc. Jamaica is a net importer of fish products and Canada is a major exporter which is used to make Jamaica escovich fish.
Jamaica Fishing
Although the Jamaica has limited resources in terms of developing a large-scale fishing industry, the value of fish and sea products as a source of food has long been recognized. All Caribbean territories therefore have fishing industries. This is why you can see many Jamaica kids river fishing.
Situated in the tropics, no cold currents are found in the area, but a continental shelf of about 50 km off Belize and extending to as much as 200 km off Nicaragua, Honduras and coastal South America provides shallow water for fish. This is perfect for spear fishing in Jamaica. Coupled with this continental shelf is upwelling of nutrients. Large rivers such as the Orinoco, Amazon, Essequibo and Patuca pour minerals into the sea, making for rich coastal fisheries in these areas. This is also a great precursor to Jamaica bay kayak fishing tournament. Ocho Rios Jamaica fishing is an excellent way to spend a great holiday.
Most Jamaican fishermen ply their trade from small boats (4—11 meters). These small craft, often without protection from the sun or rain, are forced to remain very close to shore, seldom going more than 16 kilometers offshore. Several methods for catching fish are used. Fillet (gill) nets, trawling, lining, seining, fish pots and reels are used throughout the Caribbean. The introduction of trawlers both local and foreign-owned is fairly recent in the Caribbean. Guyana leads the way with over 250 shrimp trawlers. Trinidad and Barbados also operate large fleets of trawlers. The method of fishing used depends on the type and size of the fish to be caught. Trawling is used to catch shrimp, carite, snapper and cavali. The main catches from seine and gill nets are king fish, shark and carite. Fish pot catches are red snappers and jacks. This is vital for season for fishing for marlin in Jamaica.
Fishing is a year-round activity in the Caribbean and it directly employs thousands of people. More than 2500 people are employed in Barbados; Trinidad and Tobago has approximately 2700 full-time fishermen, while Guyana has 7500 full-time employees and over 4000 people employed part-time in the industry.
Marketing
When fishermen come ashore with their catches, the fish still have to reach the consumer. A number of different methods of selling are used in the Jamaica.
Most small-scale fishermen take some of the catch for their families; the rest is sold on the beach. The people buying on the beach in turn retail the fish through the villages. They may use bicycles or small open vans to transport the fish. This type of selling can be seen in several villages in Jamaica, St. Vincent, St. Lucia, Dominica, the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago. There is also excellent for Jamaica fishing charter.
The growth of the Jamaican tourist industry in the islands has meant a greater demand for fish and fish products. Fishermen living on islands with a tourist industry often have quotas to meet for the hotels. This is particularly true in places such as Port Antonio and Montego Bay in northern Jamaica, the fishing communities of western Barbados, and Pigeon Point in Tobago. These Jamaican fishermen may divide their catches into two or three. Part for their family; part for the hotel and; the rest for general sale (if any is left over).
There is an increasing tendency in the major fishing territories to have wholesale markets. In Guyana plants, such as the Guyana Food Processors and Georgetown Seafood’s and Trading Company, buy fish and shrimps for processing. In Trinidad, Amber Sea Foods Company buys fish directly from trawlers and other fishermen. After processing, the fish is sold to local supermarkets, or exported to the U.S.A.
No matter what marketing technique is used, it is important that the fish reach the consumer in good condition. If there is to be a delay between catching the fish and eating it, then some processing must be done to prevent spoilage, or the catch must be refrigerated. Three processing methods are common in the island.
Salting – The fish is washed, gutted, salted, then dried in the sun, or in a special electrical drying unit. Barbadian salted fish has found markets all over Jamaica. Among the fish salted are salmon, shark, grouper and carite.
Smoking – The fish is washed, gutted, a little salt is added, and then it is partly cooked over a smoking fire. Herrings and jacks are normally preserved by this method.
Fresh fish – The fish is washed, and passed through a machine which coats it with a film of ice. It is then wrapped in foil. Fish fillets are also becoming increasingly important. The Pisces Fish Processing plant in Patience Hill, Tobago processes over 70,000 kg of flying fish, snapper, grouper and king fish annually. Ninety-five per cent of this fish is sold locally, the rest goes to Barbados.
Problems of the fishing industry in Jamaica
Marketing is one of the major problems of the fishermen. Often fishermen restrict their catch because they know if their catch is too large they will be unable to dispose of it. Large catches sometimes mean less money for the fisherman, as the price per kilo drops with a glut.
Jamaican fishermen in Rocky Point travel as much as 200 km by sea to sell their catches. There is no demand at home.
When catches are large, one way to maintain reasonable prices is to withhold some of the fish. To do this however, adequate refrigeration facilities are needed. Of the sixty-four beaches in Jamaica where fish are landed only about six have cold storage facilities. The situation is worse in most other territories.
The warm Jamaican waters yield a large variety of edible fish. But, people in Jamaica have shown a marked preference for just a few varieties. Snapper, grouper, jacks, cavali, kingfish, flying fish, carite and shellfish such as shrimps and lobsters are popular. Catfish is eaten on some islands and not on others. Shark meat is also sometimes discriminated against. In some cases, methods of preparing the fish are not known. An example of this is the popular flying fish — a delicacy in Barbados, but its preparation for cooking was unknown in parts of Tobago until recently.
The introduction of trawling fleets with their large nets has led to over-fishing in coastal waters off South America. The nets catch both large and small fish. The end result is a marked drop in the number of fish being caught in the following years.
The fishermen have had problems with the Venezuelan authorities because their nets, designed to catch small fresh water shrimp in Jamaica, have smaller holes than those allowed for fishing in Venezuelan waters. Over-fishing is a serious problem and must be dealt with as a matter or urgency.
Future prospects
Although water surrounds Jamaica and fish are plentiful, the per capita consumption in 1975 was only 6.8 kilograms yearly. National bodies will have to work at changing these eating habits. Improved marketing and refrigeration facilities are needed in all the islands, to ensure that the population is able to buy fresh fish cheaply. Fresh water fish (tilapia) introduced in the 1950s to Jamaica and appeal to consumers. This has led to tilapia fish farming in Jamaica to become a very popular activity.
The future size of food imports into Jamaica will be decided not only on how well we till the land, but also how we harvest the waters which surround us. |
