STATUS OF QUEEN CONCH FISHERY IN ST LUCIA

1. STATUS OF QUEEN CONCH FISHERY IN ST LUCIA Prepared by: Patricia Hubert-Medar and Sarita Williams Peter Presenter: Patricia Hubert-Medar Panama City October 23-25

2. Agenda • Description of the national Queen Conch fishing industry • Policy and Legislation • Development Activities • Fisheries management and conservation activities • Consumption and Trade • Annual catch statistics • research • stock assessment • Final Considerations

3. Description of the national Queen Conch fishing industry • single species nearshore fisheries • 11 – 43 m • SCUBA gear - three dives per trip - 100 – 500 /trip • fibreglass pirogues, 7.02 – 8.45 m, 115 – 250 hp • majority landed whole (live) and then sold immediately or retained for fish fry.

4. Policy and Legislation • Fisheries Regulations since 1994: Current legislation provides protection for: • Immature conch • Flared lip • Meat weight • Revised Legislation (not in effect) • Includes Permit system

5. Development Activities • Historical survey social and geographical issues, catch and effort, demand, economics and trade, resource use, awareness and trends. • Assessment surveys Habitat, conch and dives • Collate data and information into booklet

6. Fisheries management and conservation activities • Two management objectives have been defined for this resource: • rebuilding the near shore stocks and • ensuring sustainable use of this resource

7. Consumption and Trade • major market for meat • local market serving both the tourism sector and nationals • Local markets include: Saint Lucia Fish Marketing Co-operation, hotels, restaurants, seafood festival vendors and the general public • Growing demand for conch at seafood festivals stimulate economic development in these communities. • Sale of conch shells, is another area for economic benefits.

8. Annual catch statistics Data collection include: gathering of data on catch, effort etc. Conch landings are captured for Gros Islet in the north, where the majority of conch is landed; Laborie; Vieux Fort and Dennery Over the past 12 years conch landings have been on a steady decline. CPUE also confirms.

9. Conch Landings 2000-2011

10. Stock Assessment Total allowable catch (harvest quota), which initially should not be beyond 30 tonnes per year. CPUE shows decline in stock. Need for collection of additional data on density of stock. 2008 socio-economic study – majority of fishers reported no change.

11. Conch Research • Inclusion of the following data may improve the reliability of the assessment: • Abundance /Density survey • Habitat mapping ( both fished and non fished areas) • The collection of catch and effort data on the conch fishery should be continued to include depth estimates.

12. Final Consideration • The following summarises the information on issues affecting the conch fishery: • Sustained Data Collection collaboratively with fishers. • Consideration of Morphological differences • Information on stocks is still scarce, scarcity of information limits informed management decisions. • Depths at which the conch are now found is becoming an even greater limiting factor on the number of dives that are being conducted. • In general, fisheries management and enforcement agencies have limited surveillance and enforcement capacities.