Climate Action Jamaica Project #45478

Empower Jamaican Fishermen to Restore Marine-Life

by White River Marine Association

Empower Jamaican Fishermen to Restore Marine-Life

Project Report | Mar 3, 2021
White River Fish Sanctuary Update #3 - White River

By Jordan Oelke | Project Leader

At the White River Fish Sanctuary in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, community means a lot to us. Due to COVID-19 we have had to transform how we maintain and make up a community, but we have made a lot of strides! In addition to providing awareness and educating the local fishing community on COVID-19 prevention measures, we handed out masks to community members. We have additionally provided resources for grade 6 students to prepare for their final exams, as only a few of many students whom lack access internet and computer devices.
We have also started monthly lionfish culls, open to volunteers and the community, to promote community involvement and also use this as an opportunity to promote environmental awareness and stewardship.
The WRFS will be hosting an upcoming forum this month in conjunction with the government agency for environmental planning (NEPA) for community fishermen to share ideas on generating alternative sources of income.
The WRFS also has plans to start growing a third type of coral on our nurseries, Acropora prolifera, commonly known as fused staghorn coral, which will add to the diversity of corals within the White River Fish Sanctuary. Acrophobia prolifera is a hybrid species which has shown to be adaptive to the warmer waters which can be more expected due to the effects of climate change.

Attachments:

Newsletter_8_draft.docx (DOCX)

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Nov 3, 2020
White River Fish Sanctuary Update 2

By Jordan Oelke | Project Manager

The White River Fish Sanctuary has exciting announcements! First, our newly built office is open for visitation (with observed social distancing and hygiene concepts of course!). We now have a permanent home to continue to 'Engage-Restore-Protect'. Drop in and say hello monday-friday 8:30 am - 5 pm, located past the "old bridge", before Shaw Park Beach at the White River fishing village.

We continue to enroll the White River fishermen, some of whom work for the White River Fish Sanctuary as wardens and coral gardeners, and other members of the community into our 'Ocean Literacy' classes. Educating the community on topics such as climate change, the complexity of coral reefs and our relationship to the oceans is a priority of ours, and constitutes the Engage part of our three part motto.

We are also proud to tell you of our newly created artificial reef which we call the "Glass Bottle Reef" made from recycled glass bottles and cement. Unfortunately, Jamaica lacks the capacity and resources at the moment to support a mass recycling program, and such efforts can only be found currently in the infancy/testing stage within smaller sustainably minded communities. Therefore, the repurpesing of bottles as bases for our staghorn corals to grow out of solves two problems at once! Staghorn corals are endangered and require human intervention to recover in the Caribbean.

While we received support from our committed sponsors around the Ocho Rios community for our above mentioned project, the White River Fish Sanctuary underwent, and continues to undergo various changes in our operations, while we weather the CoronaVirus Pandemic. Unfortunately, due to financial constraints, we reduced the working hours of our wardens, and thus, the sanctuary patrol; despite the increase in observed accounts of fishermen entering the sanctuary. Our goal now is to return the lost hours to our wardens so that the White River community remains economically strong and fishermen not observing the 'no-take' rules can be intercepted so that the marine-life can flourish without human interference. Our goal is only reachable with your support! Individual donors will play a HUGE role this year in helping us to continue chasing our '500 in 5' (500% increase in fish stocks [size and population] in five years) goal. We need all the help we can get!!

Links:

White River Fish Sanctuary Instagram

Attachments:

Newsletter_7.pdf (PDF)

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Jul 7, 2020
White River Fish Sanctuary Update 1

By Belinda Morrow | White River Fish Sanctuary, Co-Chair

The fishermen are continuing to fish and sell their catch. Covid 19 has not affected sales too much as unfortunately the catches are small. with time and the success of the sanctuary hopefully this will change and they will be catching bigger fish. The government has indicated that they would like to support the fishermen in the form of cheaper fuel to facilitate and improve their ability to go further out to sea to catch pelagic fish. These fish would are larger, and go for a higher price, thus they would positively improve their income. However, it remains to be seen if any funds are actually allocated.

The WRFS is also considering implimenting a fish aggregating device (FAD), which would require cooperation amongst the fishermen and restraint to not catch the small fish attracted to the FAD.

Along with the re-construction of a roof in the fishing village into zinc, the WRFS office is almost finished construction. The office will enable the WRFS to have a seperate location, although nearby from the fishermen's village, for outreach, and hosting meetings/ workshops, such as the Monday sanctuary meetings, and literacy classes.

COVID update: The pressure on the sanctuary has been huge from both the financial and the human aspect. Financially we have less funds as most funding comes from the hotels but they have no business so support of the sanctuary has decreased. This in turn means fewer hours of warden patrol of the protected area. Meanwhile there are more persons fishing in the sanctuary as lots of people are out of work so have the time to fish, or are just hungry.

Protection of the juvenile fish is the biggest and most beneficial aspect to improve the catch. It is imperative that the WRFS can continue these patrols.

The WRFS has out planted more than 500 Acropora cervicornis (staghorn coral) and have relocated, and continuing to seed, Nursery 1. The bamboo coral tree continues to be a success, being the only tree not to be destroyed when we had some increment weather. The 3 young scuba divers we trained are getting along well, and one is looking to do further scuba training.

The WRFS is relocating some corals in an area where a dock has been approved. We are glad to be involved in this to ensure the coral are properly cared for.

The sanctuaries have been working together to reach out to the government as one voice to establish proper funding. Currently there is no direct funding, but the hope is that the importance to both the fishing industry and the tourism sectors will be recognized, and in turn funds allocated on an ongoing basis to ensure the future of the sanctuaries through marine conservation.

Lastly, the WRFS recently completed AGRRA coral and fish surveys to check on our progress toward the 500 % increase in fish biomass (size and population) in 5 years.

Attachments:

Global Giving Newsletter 1 (PDF)

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