New project seeks to grow lobsters
For decades the fishing of lobster, whether by trap or free diving, has been one of the most lucrative of Belize’s economic activities, providing the nation with valuable foreign exchange and several thousand families with a better than average living. But, given the history of both legal and illegal exploitation, there is no guarantee that Belize’s lobsters will be around forever. That’s why some people I met this morning are planning ahead.
Janelle Chanona, Reporting
Weighing in at a whopping thirty-two dollars a pound, the spiny lobster is a heavy weight to Belizean economics. But with more than three thousand men and women riding the high seas to trap them, lobster lobbyists say the specie’s numbers have levelled off.
Beverly Wade, Fisheries Administrator
“Although we have more fishermen, we have more traps, the production is not increasingly incrementally. So the production has really been stable, and that’s one of the characteristics of have a mature fishing industry, which means that there is not much room for natural growth.”
The fishing industry has taken some serious hits over the last four years, including major hurricanes, which has meant significant damage to critical habitats. Enter a joint partnership between the Northern Fishermen Cooperative Society Limited and Darden Restaurants.
Darden, owners of restaurant chains like Red Lobster and the Olive Garden, say approximately ten percent of the lobster they serve come from Belize, prompting them to invest in research projects designed to save the specie.
George Williams, V.P., Environmental Affairs, Darden Rest.
“We want to make our contribution to ensuring that this supply of this product will be here now and for generations to come, because that’s when we intend our restaurants to be here; now and for generations to come. The second thing is that believe it or not, we do have a commitment that goes beyond supplying our own restaurants with products. We think it’s important that the environment be protected. We think it important that everyone be sensitive and aware of that, of the protection of our environment. So, certainly there is some…it meets some of our needs clearly on a rather narrow basis, but I think it also goes to meeting all of our needs, just as human beings.”
What Darden and Northern hope to do is catch the baby lobsters in their plankton phase, right before they drop to the ocean floor. It is a project already a year in progress in the Bahamas.
Dr. Craig Dahlgren, Caribbean Marine Research Centre
“Catching that stage and raising those to different sizes, and we’re looking at the potential for re-releasing them into the wild after we raise them for a certain period of time, or raising them all the way to market size. Basically these little lobsters, after they start living on the bottom have an extremely high mortality rate, they get eaten by all kinds of fish, things like that. And by taking them out of the natural system, raising them for at least a certain period of time, we can increase the survivability of the small lobsters.”
The scientists say they can now grow more lobster faster in these controlled environments, but there are still some obstacles ahead.
Dr. Craig Dahlgren
“We are dealing with other challenges now, in terms of finding out what the cost are of doing that, trying to reduce the cost to make it an economically feasible venture, trying to figure out where and when and how to collect the post larvae lobsters in sufficient numbers to make this a viable production method, and also, to make sure that we have little to no impact on wild stock. We don’t want to be taking these lobsters out to raise them in captivity and deplete stocks in the wild.”
So what about those ecological concerns? Local experts say impact to the environment will be minimal.
Beverly Wade
“Naturally, species produce an abundance of eggs to accommodate for natural mortality. And if you have a lobster which is producing so many hundred thousand eggs, one lobster alone you already have a significant amount of potential juveniles. So it’s not like we’re clearing out all the lobster from the sea to then grow them out…not necessarily. We are capturing a certain amount of them to then give them a better chance of survival in the wild and hence, looking at maintaining the stock in Belize and the stock for fishermen.”
The proposed research site is an area near Caye Caulker. According to the Darden representatives, the project will cost more than three hundred thousand U.S. dollars, spread over three years.
