Belize
City, Friday, 30 August 2019 (CRFM)—The CRFM
Continental Shelf Fisheries Working Group (CSWG) convened a meeting
during 20-22 August in Georgetown, Guyana, to review the status and
management of Atlantic Seabob (a commercially important shrimp)
Fisheries of Guyana and Suriname. Both fisheries are certified by the
Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), which means that they are
recognized across the globe as sustainably managed. The MSC
certification is associated with certain standards of best fisheries
management practices, and places the countries in a strong position
to maintain and expand trade with lucrative markets. The CRFM working
group meeting supported the countries to fulfill specific technical
conditions set by the MSC.

According to
Rob Banning, project manager at Parlevliet & Van der Plas Group,
“The meeting, under the CRFM umbrella, was
unique as it brought together all relevant stakeholders (public
officials, industry, NGOs and scientists) and provided a foundation
for fruitful international cooperation between Guyana and Suriname.”
Yolanda Babb-Echteld, of the Fisheries Department of Suriname and
Chairperson of Suriname’s Seabob Working Group, echoed similar
sentiments, noting further that “Suriname
and Guyana share the same large marine ecosystem, and hence fisheries
characteristics. Hence, the meeting allowed the two countries to
learn from each other’s MSC experiences.”

The CRFM
working group meeting carefully considered available data,
information and knowledge on seabob biology, and on the historical
development of fishing operations in order to agree on the most
plausible stock assessment model for determining seabob stock status.
The technical experts also gave attention to different fishing effort
measures that could be applied in a Harvest Control Rule for each
country’s fishery.

After
finalizing these key elements, the meeting considered steps to
strengthen the scientific base for management actions. On this, there
was strong support for better scientific understanding of seabob’s
overall ecological role, and of fishery-ecosystem/environment
interactions and impacts. In terms of broadening the information
base, Hanneke Vanlavieren of World Wildlife Fund (WWF) indicated that
WWF’s contribution included “Creating an
on-board ETP (Endangered, Threatened and Protected) species
identification guide to track ETP species by-catches, training
fishermen to identify ETP species, and improvement of data collection
sheets for ETP by-catch.”

A widespread
call was made for continued, formal collaboration between the
countries, via focused annual meetings. Randy Bumbury, of Guyana’s
Fisheries Department and Chairperson of Guyana’s Seabob Working
Group, welcomed the call for an annual meeting, saying that “The
meeting highlighted the importance of Guyana and Suriname
collaborating more in the future to tackle challenges and support
each other in ensuring sustainability of the seabob fisheries.
This is a long term process which will achieve
sustainability of these fisheries in the face of wider environmental
issues such as climate change.” And Tomas
Willems, Fisheries expert of FAO ReBYCII-LAC project based in
Suriname, also supported the idea, saying that “Both
countries now have a MSC certified seabob fishery which requires
close monitoring and in which mutual exchange will be beneficial to
see how to tackle certification conditions and recommendations to
continue improving the fishery's sustainability.”

Among the
immediate next steps agreed was for CRFM to convene an electronic
Scientific Meeting on Atlantic Seabob to review the final assessment
and stock status findings, and the Harvest Control Rule for industry
control. Paul Medley, the international fisheries assessment expert
charged with the seabob assessment modelling work, said that “This
type of co-operation is laudably meeting Suriname and Guyana's
responsibilities under international obligations, and sets a good
example for other states in the region. The meeting would encourage
further co-operation in all scientific, management and enforcement
issues of mutual interest.”

The
Continental Shelf Working Group Meeting was chaired by CRFM’s
Deputy Executive Director, Susan Singh-Renton, who reflected on the
meeting’s achievements, saying “It is
pleasing for the CRFM to make its contribution towards the
partnership effort between Guyana and Suriname aimed at sustainable
seabob trawl fisheries management and MSC certification. The
target-oriented approach of the meeting allows the CRFM to
re-introduce its scientific meeting in a way that meets industry
needs more immediately.”

Photo Caption: Participants of the CRFM CSWG Meeting, assembled outside of the Fisheries Department in Guyana, included representatives from Guyana’s and Suriname’s fisheries departments, private seabob trawl companies, the NGO community, and independent technical experts with seabob fishery assessment and management expertise.

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ABOUT THE
CRFM:

The
Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism
(CRFM) was officially inaugurated on 27 March 2003 in Belize City,
Belize, where it is headquartered, following the signing of the
“Agreement Establishing the CRFM” on February 4, 2002. It is an
inter-governmental organization whose mission is “to promote and
facilitate the responsible utilization of the region's fisheries and
other aquatic resources for the economic and social benefits of the
current and future population of the region.”