I'm back in the DR! Thomas and I arrived on the 28th of December. He only stayed for a week but I'm here until the 18th of January. The main reason why I came back was to have the chance to visit Monte Cristi, which has had a lobster house project in operation for two years and it has been very successful. I have been in contact with the operator, Angel, since the beginning of the summer and he has been very helpful in providing me with information concerning their project and on lobster fishing in general. On Monday Thomas and I woke up early and caught the got the 7:30 bus to Monte Cristi from Santo Domingo. When we got there Angel was not there, but he gave me the number of a friend if I needed any help and told us to stay in Chic Hotel.
The next morning we had breakfast with Angel and I was able to ask him some questions about the project. Then Simon, the fisherman who is most involved with the project came and I was able to ask him some more questions and he agreed to take us out to see the lobster houses that were in front of Cayo Cabra, the houses that were in the shallow water. In the afternoon we went for a walk to El Morro, which is We had dinner with Angel that night and decided to head to Santiago because the following day was Thomas’s last in the country and we had done everything that we had to do in Monte Cristi. Here is the list of questions that I had answered:
House Characteristics
1. How deep are the houses?
10 of them are 3 meters deep and the other 80 are 10-15 meters deep.
2. How far apart are the houses?
The ones that are deeper are 10 meters a part and the ones that are shallower are 40-50 meters apart.
3. What substrate are the houses located on?
The shallower ones are on seagrass beds on top of the seagrass and the deeper ones are located in the blancos, which are the sand patches in the seagrass.
4. Are they oriented with the current?
They are diagonal to the current.
5. What is their orientation in regard to natural refuges?
There is no specific orientation. The lobster houses in the shallows that I visited were five meters away from a pile of rocks which were filled with fish, lion fish, and juvenile lobsters, which were backed up into the crevices with their antennae sticking out. In the 2 meter long pile there were at least 10 lobsters.
Maybe they should put more rocks into the ocean for the juvenile lobsters and for other sea life because around that area with the rocks everything was barren besides it.
6. Are they placed on flat surfaces?
As far as I know.
7. Are the houses built using the same materials and dimensions as ReefCheck?
They are made from ferrocement but they use a different design. The houses are 22 cm tall, taller than the ReefCheck houses, which are 15 cm, in order to attract larger lobsters. The sides are tilted and there is an extended edge, both which prevent the house from sinking into the mud. They are also smaller, measuring 1x1 meters squared. The houses used by ReefCheck are 1.3 x 1.6 meters squared.
Angel said that the fishermen in Punta Allen use at least five different designs depending on where the lobster houses are placed and on what substrate. The design that they are using is for sandy bottoms, which is what we have in Miches. The design that has right angles that we are currently using is for hard bottoms so the houses may end up sinking into the sand.
Management Concerns
1. Is a net or jamo used to catch the lobsters? And how is it used? What are the dimensions?
They use a net that is a 2-3 feet wide and take out all of the lobsters, throwing back the ones that are juveniles.
2. Are compressors used to reach the houses?
The shallow houses can be free dived but the deeper houses are reached using a compressor.
3. How many houses are active right now?
They have 90 houses and 200 more are already built and all that is needed is permission from the environmental ministry.
4. How many houses does each fisherman receive?
There is currently no ownership.
5. Are there TURFS/campos?
There are plans to make TURFs and they are calling them "parcelos."
6. How many fishermen are there?
There are around 80 that are involved in a cooperative and there are six fishermen who are currently interested in the lobster houses, only one of which is currently active.
7. How often are the lobster houses checked?
The houses are checked around once a month.
8. At what time are the lobster houses checked?
Not any specific time that I know of.
9. How long does it take for the fishermen to check their houses?
Unknown
10. What is the name of the town that the project is in?
Monte Cristi, the capital of the Monte Cristi province in the northwest of the country.
11. Is the town hard to get to?
Caribe Tours offers a bus service there from Santo Domingo that takes approximately 6 hours (less if the road conditions are good and there is no traffic) and it is 2 hours from Santiago. The roads deteriorate after Santiago but are not as bad as the roads from San Pedro de Macoris to Miches because it is flat.
12. Does it receive a lot of tourists? If so, where do those tourists come from?
According to Angel, there are not a lot of tourists and we did not see any.
There was one tourist shop by the water and a woman asked us if we wanted to pay to take a boat out to Cayo Cabra, which is called that because it used to have goats on it. It also has an old lighthouse that is no longer working and the middle of the island looks like it has a manmade pool of some sort. They also offered tours to Los Siete Hermanos and another excursion. There are a significant amount of nice restaurants, which cater towards the rich Dominicans that go there on vacation. However, we did run into a group of forty volunteers for the local orphanage, which as 50 orphans.
There are whales that come to breed in the area.
There are also a significant amount of centuries-old shipwrecks in the area around Cayo Cabra and there is an archaeological institute that has been cataloging. Possibly may be good for diving.
The city was a stop over to Dajabón, which is a bordertown with Haiti and every Monday and Friday Haitians cross the border for free on the “Friendship Bridge” and sell discount brand name clothing in bulk to Dominicans, who bring food and other household items for the Haitians to buy in bulk.
"El Morro" is a plateau that looms over the city and shelters a beautiful beach. There is a small hill that you can climb for a fantastic view of the beach, the shadows of manatees grazing on the seagrass, the Haitian mountains, Cayo Cabra, and Los Siete Hermanos in the distance when the sky is clear.
13. Do the lobster fishermen measure the lobsters?
No.
14. If they harvest a lobster that is undersized or have eggs, do they throw it back?
Using the houses yes, but normally no.
They have found that when they leave a few lobsters in the place where they harvest the lobsters, there will be more for when they come back, which is because the lobsters release chemical cues to tell other lobsters where there is good shelter. They also make clicking noises according to Paul.
15. Is their catch recorded by CODOPESCA?
Usually, but not all of it is recorded all of the time, same as in Miches.
16. Is there enforcement of the veda in Monte Cristi? Lobster sizes? Berried females?
There is enforcement of the veda, but that is it. The small lobsters are sold and those that buy them chop them up and put them in dishes like paella.
17. What is the relationship between the company and the fishermen? Do they get paid by how many lobsters they catch?
The details haven’t been worked out yet. The company’s name is Millennium Oceanic. Angel’s job is to work with the fishermen in Monte Cristi to operate the lobster house project.
18. Are the lobster houses located within or close to a protected area? What is the protected area called? When was it created? Are there any additional regulations due to the houses proximity to a protected area?
The lobster houses are located within Monte Cristi National Park, which includes los Siete Hermanos, and is also part of the Banco de la Plata y de la Navidad. This last reserve is designated as a scientific reserve and is the breeding ground for humpback whales and is shared with the Samaná Peninsula and Miches. There are no additional regulations for fishing in the area despite being a part of two national parks, according to Angel.
19. Are there any local rules for lobster extraction, such as extended vedas, increased minimum size, quotas, expulsion from the cooperative if they do not obey regulations, habitat protection, etc?
Nope.
20. Do the lobsters migrate during the hurricane season?
Yes.
21. Are other species of lobster found in the houses besides P. argus?
No.
22. Are there other species of lobster caught?
Yes, langostinos but not slipper lobsters. The langostinos are caught on the coral reefs.
Socioeconomic Concerns
23. How many lobsters does a lobster fisherman usually harvest in one day?
Unknown.
24. Where and how are the lobsters stored until they reach market?
On ice. They are sold dead.
25. Do the lobsters go through a middle man? Who are they?
The fishermen sell them to the pescadería, which also provides them with the equipment and boats. The pescadería sells the lobsters to another middle man that sells them to the restaurants.
26. What is the end destination of the lobsters? (i.e. restaurant in Punta Cana, local market)
Larger cities for the tourist market.
27. Is there a market for live or sustainable lobsters?
No there is no market for live lobsters. Also, the people do not care where their lobster comes from. The only possible sustainable lobster market would be in Punta Cana because that is the only place where there are enough tourists who may care about where their food comes from.
28. What is the price per pound/kg of lobster?
The lobster fishermen are paid 100-120 pesos per pound of lobster.
29. Can you buy lobster locally (at the store, in a local restaurant)? What is the price?
Yes. At Cocomar, the budget seafood restaurant on the ocean one lobster dish cost 750 pesos. They have terrible mosquitoes at night but supposedly the best food in town.
30. Do the fishermen fish lobsters with nasas as well?
Yes.
31. Do the fishermen fish with compressors? Has there been decompression sickness?
Yes, with a harpoon, and yes. It has decreased recently in the last ten years because the fishermen are more aware that diving at such depths with compressors is a problem.
32. Do the fishermen also fish other organisms, such as reef fish, octopus, etc.?
Yes.
33. What percentage of the fish catch are lobsters in the region?
Unknown.
34. Do the fishermen have other jobs? What are they? (tourism, fishing, farming, etc.)
Unknown.
35. What are the other industries in the area?
There are a lot of salt fields lining the road to the beach where about a foot of ocean water is let in, evaporates in two days because the area is so hot and dry, and the salt is harvested. There are also a lot of rice fields.
36. What kind of boat does the lobster fishermen have?
Same as in Miches. Motor boat that is able to fit 6 lobster houses on it if necessary.
Monte Cristi is known for a getaway for rich Dominicans (business men and politicians), many of which have a boat there that they leave year round.
37. How many fishers per boat?
2
38. Are the fishermen using poison?
Angel said that fishermen from other areas come into Monte Cristi and use poison to fish in the mangroves but Simon said that none of the fishers use poison.
39. Is there a problem with fishers coming from other communities to fish in Monte Cristi?
Angel said yes, but Simon said no.
40. Do the fishermen have GPSs?
The fishermen involved in the project have GPSs but the other fishermen do not.
Here is a photo of the Faro de Colòn (Christopher Columbus´s lighthouse), which is called by one tourist ¨an architectural atrocity¨. In the book I read over the summer about the history of the Dominican Republic, ¨Why the Cocks Fight,¨ it said that millions of dollars were spent to build it and when they turned it on for the first time, the entire city of Santo Domingo lost power. Now they only turn it on during Columbus day and it shots a light in the form of a giant cross into the sky. It is a complete waste of money.
Here is a photo inside Los Tres Ojos, the system of caves outside of Santo Domingo. It was really cool. This cave is open to the air and you can hear merengue and bachata music drifting down from the guardhouse. In order to get to it you have to use a ferry through the caves that costs 20 pesos.
Here is a photo of the view from the hill we hiked in Monte Cristi. That mountain is called ¨El Morro¨or the plateau. We wanted to hike it but it is a reserve so it is not allowed.
On New Year´s Eve we hung out with Wilman and his friends Sandy and Yimmy. We went to Yimmy´s house, where were were introduced to canasta. Then we went to Yimmy´s aunt´s house for a delicious dinner and some dancing. After a few drinks I was able to convince them to take me to the Malecon, the road by the ocean, where there was fireworks, live music, and a live broadcast from NYC! It looked a lot colder there than it was in the DR. This is a photo that Thomas took of Wilman and I dancing. I think that it came out looking pretty cool!
Here is a photo of all of us before we went to go to Yimmy´s aunt´s house (except for Thomas because he is taking the picture). In order from left to right is Yimmy, Sandy, me, and Wilman.
On our way back from visiting the food market on the 27th de Febrero (the Dominican Republic´s Independence Day, which is also Thomas´s birthday!), we came across Chinatown! I was excited to see it because it is rare to see Asians or any foreigner for that matter in the Dominican Republic that are not tourists. This is a photo of him with the statue of the Chinese immigrant. :)
