UWI’s Faculty of Food and Agriculture has collaborated with the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization on a regional project to tackle fisheries bycatch.

Bycatch refers to marine animals that are caught unintentionally while fishing for specific species or sizes of wildlife.

The project – “Strategies, technologies, and social solutions to manage bycatch in tropical Large Marine Ecosystem Fisheries (REBYC-III CLME+)” – was launched on January 22nd 2024, at the Trinidad Hilton.

The US$5.3 million project is funded by the Global Environment Facility Trust Fund, implemented by FAO and executed by the UWI FFA.

It is expected to be implemented over a 48-month period in Barbados, Guyana, Suriname, and Trinidad & Tobago.

The objective is to manage bycatch and reduce discards in the Caribbean and North Brazil Shelf Large Marine Ecosystems (CLME+) thereby promoting sustainable and responsible fisheries that provide economic opportunities while ensuring the conservation of marine living resources.

In his opening speech of the Project Inception Workshop and first meeting of the Project Steering Committee, Professor Indar Ramnarine, Deputy Principal at the UWI St. Augustine Campus, noted that the region’s target fish stocks were some of the most exploited in the world.

He adds that some of these fisheries produce high levels of incidental catch of non-target organisms (bycatch) including Endangered, Threatened and Protected species such as marine turtles, marine mammals, sharks and rays.