The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

The Government has teamed with the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to capture data vital to preserving the Bahamas' fish stocks.

Rena Glinton, the Ministry of Agriculture and Marine Resources' permanent secretary, told Tribune Business: "We need statistical data on how much we have, how much is caught, where they are and how they spawn."

Speaking with Tribune Business following a presentation at an FAO-funded workshop on bill fish, Ms Glinton said: " This is the fourth in a series of workshops funded through the FAO and the World Bank on the Bill Fish. It is a species that we really don't deal with, like the tunas and wahoo, but it's important for us to pay attention to their usage and to know exactly what is happening for capacity building and sustainability."

She added: "We just finished a project with FAO, and just hired some 29 fisheries superintendents. We have many places where we land fish, so we need to go where the landing is to find out how many fish is being landed by our fishermen - being casual or commercial - as well as the tourists who come here. We are keeping statistical data on all of those to see what our stocks look like and how we use it."

Ms Glinton said the superintendents, who were hired between July 2016 and February this year, have been strategically placed in major fishing areas.

"This is something FAO has done for us. Each superintendent will be getting a laptop. They will be bringing them in in the next two to three weeks on how to use the software to input the data as they collect it," said Ms Glinton, noting that all fisheries - including conch and sponge - would be included in the data.