Currently there are six or seven houses in the water and two of them are inaccessible to fishermen because they are in the nursery (acuario), where the corals are grown and where there are many divers. The fishermen are not allowed to access this area with boats from 9-5, but many of them fish during the night or free dive, which means they go out snorkeling with their harpoon and bag in tow. There are more than a hundred fishermen who are members of the association, but in the Foundation there was only a list of 35 registered fishermen. Also, Victor said that many of the fishermen are older and there is not many young fishermen because they are being employed in tourism and other jobs. The association has been in existence for 12-14 years.
The main fisherman that we talked to, named Sr. Rojo said that Dominicans don’t think of the future but only of immediate gain and that is why the lobster houses haven’t had much follow through. There are rumors that as many as 60 pounds of lobster have been taken in from one house at one time so they seem to be successful. The houses in the nursery did not have any lobsters, only a red-banded coral shrimp. There are 10 more houses that were built in December in the Foundation that should be put in the water and there are materials for 10 more houses to be built. The fishermen already have an idea of where to put them so that they wouldn’t be in the way of divers. They talked about getting a GPS so that they would be able to know the exact location of the houses and wanted to get someone to teach them how to use it. Right now the houses are just checked from memory and whoever wants to can check the lobster houses for lobster.
While we were having the meeting, a fisherman came in with his catch and had 21 pounds of lobsters and there were only 14 spiny lobsters! There was only one that looked like it was undersized and none of them had eggs. The fisherman had also caught loro, lambí, and pork fish, among other fish. The fishermen in this community use a gancho and a compressor to catch lobsters and also some of the fishermen use nasas, but lobster isn’t their primary source of income. They sell their catch to the local restaurants and resorts. I think that it would be beneficial for them to market their product as being caught locally, because it saves on the gas and ice needed to transport fish from across the country to get to the resorts. The resorts could win out and the fishermen. Lobster houses also seem to be the best way to increase catch because the houses do not require a lot of space and there could be as many as 250 lobsters in one house. An option that the fishermen brought up is the possibility of taking tourists out on fly fishing excursions, but the fishermen do not know how to fly fish. However, they know where to catch the fish. Tarpon is caught in Miches and is supposed to be a fantastic fly fishing fish but Micheros catch them with just a hook and line. Victor came up with the idea of teaching the fishermen how to SCUBA safely and exchange their compressors for SCUBA tanks. The tanks are expensive but it only costs 5 dollars to refill them. It would basically be like the net exchange project ESSEG is doing for the Sustainable Fisheries Grant. However, the fishermen could then still use ganchos, catching berried females and undersized lobster, and might still damage the reefs.
Punta Cana really is an entirely different world from the Dominican Republic. It actually has power 24 hours a day! (The power did go of for about 15 minutes while I was there though, but Victor said that that was the first time that had ever happened since he had been there). The nearest colmado is 20 minutes away and a Presidente pequeña costs $5! It usually only costs 50 pesos ($1.50). There is no music blaring, roosters crowing, motos going by or dogs barking constantly either and everything is manicured. I didn't like it. I like the real DR better, with all of its craziness.
No comments:
Post a Comment