A £228,500 Darwin Plus grant has been announced to support UK overseas territories in the Caribbean manage their marine fisheries and develop their fisheries in a sustainable manner.
Speaking recently in Tortola, British Virgin Islands, Cefas CEO Tom Karsten and Deputy Premier and Minister of Natural Resources and Labour, Kedrick Pickering, announced details of the UK government grant which will deliver a three-year project from the 1st April 2017 in three UK Overseas Territories in the Caribbean - the British Virgin Islands (BVI), the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) and Anguilla.
Tom Karsten, chief executive of Cefas said: “I am delighted to formalise our very productive relationship with a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and hope it further develops the long-term relations between Cefas and the Government of the Virgin Islands as we work together on future projects.”
In the BVI, the Darwin Plus project will assess the current stock of conch and spiny lobsters in the Anegada Horseshoe Reef Fisheries Protected Area, the largest barrier coral reef in the Caribbean, and one of the largest on earth, to provide more robust data to inform management of the essential fishery. The project will further enable the BVI government to improve data collection and plan for continued sustainable use of these resources.
All projects have been developed in collaboration with the relevant UKOT governments to support a legacy of sustainable fisheries and improved environmental data and management.
The projects will draw on Cefas’ expertise in habitat mapping and fisheries management, to provide a picture of the health of these two critically important marine species and deliver bespoke training to complement national capabilities.
