Caribbean Marine Biodiversity Program Cooperative Agreement No. AID-OAA-A14-00064) Grenadines Bank Seascape Transboundary Fisheries Action Plan Prepared by Zahidah Afrin. August 9, 2016. This report is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents are the responsibility of The Nature Conservancy and its partners (CEBSE, FOPROBIM, C-CAM, and SusGren) and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government. i TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................................... 1 2.0 Approach and Objectives of the Action Plan .................................................................................... 6 3.0 Recommended Actions from the RFSA .............................................................................................. 6 4.0 The Action Plan for CMBP Demonstration Activities .................................................................... 8 5.0 Justification of the Demonstration Activities ............................................................................... 19 i 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 CONTEXT AND OVERVIEW OF THE GRENADINE BANK St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) and Grenada share the continental shelf that extends from the island of Bequia (in SVG) to Grenada, referred to here as the Grenadine Bank. There are several inhabited islands (Bequia, Mustique, Canouan, Mayreau, Union, Palm Island, and Petit St. Vincent1 of SVG; Petite Martinique and Carriacou of Grenada) and uninhabited islands within the Grenadine Bank. Much of the Bank area is occupied by the Grenadine Islands of SVG, around which the waters are shallower than 50 m. Local communities in the Grenadine Bank depend heavily on fishing and tourism for their livelihoods. The primary occupation of the communities is fishing. Many fishers have to supplement their income with skilled labor, public sector jobs, and jobs in tourism and maritime trade. The Grenadine Bank fishers have long-standing traditional relationships with the coastal communities across the islands of the Grenadine chain. These socio-ecological relationships define the identity of the fishers, their knowledge stores, and their safety nets. Within this relationship, there are strong social connections and unique cultural attachments to the marine environment and its use. Table 1 describes the fishing communities in the Grenadine Bank. Island Population Fishing Communities Bequia 3,000 Port Elizabeth, Lower Bay, La Pompe, Friendship Bay, Paget Farm Mustique 1,000 Mustique fishing camp Canouan 1,200 Grand Bay, Charles Bay Mayreau 350 Saline Bay, Saltwhistle Bay Union Island 1,500 Clifton, Ashton, Chatham Petite Martinique 1,000 Sanchez Hillsborough, L’Esterre, Paradise Bay, Harvey Vale, Belmont, Carriacou 7,000 Windward Table 1. Fishing communities in the Grenadine Islands A healthy marine environment in the Grenadine Bank 2 is essential not only for the conservation of marine biodiversity but also to maintain the sustainable livelihoods of local communities that depend on it. Coral reefs and associated ecosystems, such as mangrove forests and sea grass beds, provide important nursery grounds for fish. Within the Grenadine Bank, there are two protected areas that form the focus of the Caribbean Marine Biodiversity Program (CMBP): Tobago Cays Marine Park (TCMP) in SVG and the Grenada Sandy Island Oyster Bed Marine Protected Area (SIOBMPA) in Grenada. Other designated marine managed area (MMA) networks in the Grenadine Bank are the Bequia Marine Conservation Area, Canouan Marine Reserve, Isle de Quatre Marine Reserve, Mustique Marine Conservation Area, Petit St. Vincent Marine Conservation Area, and Union-Palm Island Marine Conservation Area, all of which belong to SVG. These MMAs, as well as the broader seascape, harbor priority habitats including coral reefs, mangroves, and sea grass beds that provide biological value and critical ecosystem functions. This seascape harbors key species such as white sea urchin (a keystone species), parrotfish (an indicator species), red hind, lobster, and conch (economically exploited species), as well as lionfish (an invasive species). Table 2 provides further detail on the Grenadine Bank Seascape. Parameter Grenadine Bank Seascape Location SVG and Grenada territorial waters Size 3000 km2 Relative share in the Seascape by country SVG: 5 public islands, 2 private Grenada: 2 islands Islands Terrestrial (land) area of countries SVG: 345 km2 Grenada: 344 km2 Length of coastline SVG: 84 km2 Grenada: 121 km2 Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) SVG: 36,000 km2 Grenada: 27,426 km2 1 Palm Island and Petit St. Vincent are privately owned islands. 2 Referred to as the Grenadine Bank Seascape by the CMBP. 1 Shelf area SVG: 7,800 km2 Grenada: 2,237 km2 Inshore fishing area by country SVG: 2,223 km2 Grenada: 1,902 km2 3 Tropical coral reefs 0.035% of the world Grenada: 0.034% of the world Priority MMAs within the Seascape SVG: Tobago Cays MP Grenada: Sandy Island Oyster Bed MPA Size of the MMAs within the Seascape TCMP: 3,885 ha / 38.85 km2 SIOBMPA: 787 ha / 7.87 km2 Objectives of the MMAs TCMP (2006) Primary Objectives: Objective 1: Enhanced conservation and management of biological diversity. Objective 2: Sustained economic benefits from the use of existing natural resources SIOBMPA (2007): 18 objectives listed in the management plans refer to reducing threats. Primary objective of the Seascape4 To reduce threats to marine and coastal biodiversity to achieve sustained biodiversity conservation, maintain critical ecosystems, and realize tangible improvements in human wellbeing for communities adjacent to MMAs Primary stakeholders Fisheries stakeholders at individual, local, and institutional level. SVG: Union Island Fisher Association, Mayreau Cooperatives, TCMP management on site and the TCMP Board, SVG Fisheries Division Grenada: Carriacou Fisher Association and Water Taxi association, Petite Martinique Cooperatives, SIOBMPA Board, Ministry of Carriacou and PM and local affairs, and Grenada Fisheries Division Primary industries with large impact Fisheries, tourism Priority habitats represented in the MMAs Coral reefs, mangroves, sea grass, bed lagoons, sandy beaches, cays all and the Seascape have high biological value (coral cover, diversity, species richness, habitat for different life cycles/stages in the marine corridor, critical ecosystem function). Priority species focused in the Seascape in Keystone species: white sea urchin first phase under the Rapid Fisheries Sector Indicator species: parrotfish Assessment (RFSA) Economically exploited species: red hind, lobster, conch Invasive species: lionfish Human wellbeing target in the Seascape Sustainable livelihoods for Grenadine fishers adjacent to MMAs under the RFSA Table 2. Grenadine Bank Seascape profile for Caribbean Marine Biodiversity Program with key physical, biological, and fisheries management parameters Fisheries Sector Operations in the Grenadine Bank SVG fishers have minimal access to SVG’s fish export industry. Fish exports from SVG primarily include live lobsters sent to Barbados and fish sent to St. Lucia, with small quantities of fish sent to the United States. The SVG fishery5 is primarily artisanal and fishers use traditional gear, methods, and vessels. The domestic fishing vessels are open boats constructed from wood or fiberglass and powered by outboard engines; they exploit oceanic and inshore pelagics, as well as the shelf and deep-slope demersals, lobster, and conch. The priority of the government Fisheries Division is to implement the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Single Market and Economy (CSME) plans to meet export standards and increase productivity of the fishing industry. Grenada has one of the largest fishing fleets of the eastern Caribbean island countries. The large majority of economical fishingiii effort and recorded fish catches are contributed by commercial operations. The fisheries sector is profiled as semi-industrial.6 Grenada has successfully developed high-value fish exports to the United States and parts of the European Union. French Martinique is one of the major buyers of fish from the Grenadine Bank via trading vessels from Petite Martinique. Fishers from all of the Grenadine islands (Bequia, Mustique, Canouan, Mayreau, and Union Island of SVG, as well as Carriacou of Grenada) sell their catch to these trading vessels. Due to lack of functioning fish centers and access to export markets in SVG, fishers from SVG islands are completely reliant on export to these trading vessels based in Petite Martinique, Grenada. 3 http://www.seaaroundus.org/data/#/eez/308?chart=catch-chart&dimension=taxon&measure=tonnage&limit=10 4 CMBP collaborating partners have asked TNC what the specific objectives for the Grenadine Seascape are and how TNC decided on them. They consider the regional CMBP objectives to be too general. 5 Detailed sector profile is available on the FAO website ftp://ftp.fao.org/FI/DOCUMENT/fcp/en/FI_CP_VC.pdf. 6 Fishery conducted for the purpose of wide marketing. The definitions used are not the official definitions used by FAO, but are applied by the CRFM in the Caribbean region and were considered useful for the purpose of this study. 2 Fishing is one of the main livelihoods in the Grenadine Bank, and fishers regularly move across the national boundary of their respective EEZ to exploit the transboundary shared fish