Caribbean fisheries ministers ink regional spiny lobster declaration

In a milestone development for the region, Fisheries Ministers recently endorsed a new Declaration on Spiny Lobster—a highly traded marine species in the Caribbean—at the 9th Meeting of the Ministerial Council of the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM), which concluded on Friday, 15 May 2015 in Grenada. The declaration, which is a non-binding roadmap for closer regional collaboration, was signed by the newly installed chairman of the CRFM Ministerial Council – Honourable Roland Bhola, Grenada’s Minister of Agriculture, Lands, Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, who assumed the rotating chairmanship of the Council on the occasion of the meeting from Honourable Johnson Drigo, Dominica’s Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries. The declaration states that its objective “...is to ensure the long-term sustainable use of the spiny lobster (Panulirus argus) resources through effective implementation of conservation and management measures for the stocks and their habitats based on the best scientific evidence available.” It calls on the 17 CRFM Member States to develop or adapt existing national strategies, plans, programmes or regulations to achieve the objective of the Spiny Lobster Declaration.

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