The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

The  Bahamas Commercial Fishers Alliance’s (BCFA) president yesterday said the 2015-2016 crawfish season seemed to have endured a “rough start”, adding that this year’s yields would likely be down considerably.

“This season has started off rough and it’s kind of really bad,” said Adrian LaRoda. “From the information coming into us everyone’s catch is down considerably.”

The season opened on August 1 and runs to March 31 31, 2016. Mr LaRoda said he did not wish to estimate how much this season’s yield appears to have declined, adding: “I don’t think it would be prudent to do that at this time, but it does appear as though the yield is down significantly compared to this time last year.

“It’s not because the product isn’t there, because we are coming across eggs and juvenile lobsters, but they are not harvestable. That is what we are encountering.

“It really speaks to the fact that a lot of our fishing grounds are harvested prior to the local fishermen getting there. We have seen some people getting good-sized lobsters, we are seeing some larger than we saw this time last year, which is a good sign, but we are just not getting the yield.”

    Still, Mr LaRoda said he was optimistic that this season could turn out for the better. “I’m hoping that things will pan out OK. We are grateful that we haven’t been impacted by any adverse weather conditions, and I’m hoping that this thing will turn around sooner rather than later,” he added.

    Mr LaRoda said Bahamian fisherman have been dealing with declining crawfish and spiny lobster yields for the past four years.

“If they don’t come close to breaking even this year they could practically kiss next year goodbye. We are basically going into four years of a downturn. We have had four years of a downturn, four years dealing with poachers, and a lot of guys can’t take any more,” said Mr Laroda.