Introduction: A Sector Under Pressure

Across the Caribbean, fisheries and aquaculture provide food, employment, income, and cultural identity for thousands of people. Yet the sector faces growing pressures from rising fuel costs, climate change, aging infrastructure, and increasing demands for efficiency and sustainability.

Energy sits at the centre of many of these challenges. From harvesting and processing to storage and transportation, fisheries value chains rely heavily on fossil fuels. As fuel prices fluctuate and climate-related disruptions become more frequent, operating costs increase, and profitability becomes more uncertain, particularly for small-scale operators.

At the same time, advances in renewable energy technologies are creating new opportunities to improve efficiency, reduce costs, strengthen resilience, and lower greenhouse gas emissions. The question is no longer whether renewable energy has a role to play in fisheries, but how the sector can successfully make the transition.

Understanding the Energy Challenge

For many fisheries operations, energy represents one of the highest operational costs.

Fishing vessels depend on fuel for harvesting activities. Landing sites and processing facilities require energy for ice production, refrigeration, freezing, lighting, and equipment operation. Transportation and distribution systems depend on reliable energy to maintain product quality and market access.

This dependence on fossil fuels creates several challenges:

• Exposure to fuel price volatility
• High operating costs
• Reduced profitability
• Supply chain vulnerability
• Increased carbon emissions
• Reduced resilience to external shocks

For small-scale fisheries and aquaculture enterprises, these challenges can directly affect livelihoods and food security.

Renewable Energy Opportunities Across the Value Chain

The fisheries sector offers multiple opportunities for renewable energy integration. Potential applications include solar-powered ice production, cold storage facilities, fish processing operations, refrigeration systems, aquaculture facilities, lighting systems, and other energy-intensive infrastructure.

In many cases, renewable energy technologies can help reduce operational costs while improving reliability and reducing dependence on imported fossil fuels. The potential benefits extend beyond individual enterprises. More efficient energy systems can strengthen entire value chains by reducing post-harvest losses, improving product quality, extending storage capacity, and increasing competitiveness.

Building Resilience Through Energy Transition

The case for renewable energy is not solely about reducing emissions.

For Caribbean fisheries, energy transition is fundamentally about resilience.

Climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events across the region. Fisheries infrastructure is often located in vulnerable coastal areas where disruptions to energy systems can have immediate impacts on livelihoods and food security.

Renewable energy technologies, when appropriately designed and deployed, can improve operational continuity and reduce vulnerability to external shocks.

They can also support broader national goals related to energy security, climate adaptation, and sustainable development.

The Importance of a Just Transition

Technology alone will not determine the success of the energy transition.

The benefits of renewable energy must be accessible to those who depend on fisheries and aquaculture for their livelihoods. This requires attention to financing, training, governance, access to technology, and the different ways in which women, men, and youth participate throughout fisheries value chains.

A just transition seeks to ensure that no one is left behind as the sector evolves. It recognizes that social inclusion, economic opportunity, and environmental sustainability are interconnected and must advance together. By placing people at the centre of the transition, fisheries modernization can contribute to stronger communities as well as stronger businesses.

Creating the Conditions for Investment

Despite the promise of renewable energy, significant barriers remain.

Many fisheries operators face challenges accessing financing, understanding available technologies, or assessing the economic viability of investments. Financial institutions may also have limited experience evaluating renewable energy opportunities within fisheries and aquaculture.

Addressing these barriers requires better information, stronger partnerships, supportive policies, and practical demonstration of what works. Creating the conditions for investment is therefore just as important as the technologies themselves.

How STAR-Fish is Supporting the Transition

The STAR-Fish Project was established to help address these challenges.

Through technical assessments, stakeholder engagement, capacity development, financing dialogue, renewable energy awareness initiatives, and low-carbon fisheries activities, the project is helping to create the enabling environment needed to support energy transition across Caribbean fisheries and aquaculture.

Rather than promoting a single technology or solution, STAR-Fish seeks to identify practical pathways that reflect the realities of fisheries operations in participating countries.

The goal is to generate evidence, strengthen partnerships, and support investments that contribute to a more resilient, competitive, and sustainable sector.

Looking Ahead

The transition to renewable energy within fisheries and aquaculture will not happen overnight.

It requires planning, investment, collaboration, and learning. However, the opportunities are significant. Cleaner energy systems have the potential to reduce costs, strengthen resilience, improve competitiveness, and support sustainable livelihoods throughout the Caribbean.

As countries continue to pursue climate and development goals, renewable energy will increasingly become an important component of the future of fisheries and aquaculture. The challenge now is turning opportunity into action.

Why does gender equality matter for the transition to sustainable and low-carbon fisheries?

Introduction: An Energy Transition Must Work for Everyone

Across the Caribbean, fisheries and aquaculture support thousands of livelihoods and contribute significantly to food security, employment, and rural development. Yet participation in the sector is not experienced equally.

Women play critical roles throughout fisheries value chains, particularly in processing, marketing, administration, and household-level fisheries enterprises. Despite these contributions, they often face barriers to accessing finance, productive assets, training opportunities, decision-making processes, and leadership positions. Young people similarly face challenges entering and remaining within the sector.

As Caribbean countries pursue renewable energy adoption and low-carbon fisheries development, there is growing recognition that technological solutions alone are not enough. The transition must also be fair and inclusive. This principle is often described as a just transition- an approach that seeks to ensure that the benefits and opportunities arising from economic and environmental change are shared equitably, while minimizing the risk that vulnerable groups are left behind.

In the context of fisheries and aquaculture, a just transition means ensuring that women, men, and youth have equitable access to the knowledge, skills, financing, technologies, and decision-making processes needed to participate in and benefit from the shift towards cleaner and more resilient production systems. It also means recognizing the different roles people play within fisheries value chains and addressing the barriers that may prevent them from benefiting equally from new investments and opportunities.

For this reason, gender equality and social inclusion have been embedded as central pillars of the STAR-Fish Project from its inception. By integrating these considerations into project planning and implementation, STAR-Fish seeks to support a transition that is not only environmentally sustainable, but also economically inclusive and socially equitable.

Understanding the Gender Landscape

One of the project's earliest priorities was to improve understanding of how gender dynamics shape participation in fisheries and aquaculture across the Caribbean.

The project's regional Gender Equality Strategy highlighted a number of common challenges affecting women throughout the region, including lower labour force participation, limited access to financing, underrepresentation in leadership and decision-making roles, and persistent gender-based inequalities that influence economic opportunities and livelihood outcomes.

While these challenges vary among countries, they share a common theme: women continue to contribute significantly to fisheries and aquaculture while often receiving fewer opportunities to influence decisions and access resources.

The strategy also identified the need for better data, stronger institutional capacity, and more intentional efforts to ensure that gender considerations are integrated into fisheries policies, programmes, and investments.

Listening to Communities

Recognizing that meaningful solutions must be grounded in local realities, STAR-Fish supported a series of gender and livelihoods assessments in participating countries.

These assessments examined how women and men participate across fisheries value chains, the challenges they face, and the opportunities that may emerge through renewable energy adoption and climate-resilient development.

The process created space for fisherfolk, processors, community leaders, government agencies, and other stakeholders to share perspectives on how energy transition initiatives can be designed to support more inclusive outcomes.

The findings reinforced an important lesson: while renewable energy technologies can create new opportunities, deliberate action is required to ensure those opportunities are accessible to everyone.

From Assessment to Action

Information alone does not create change.

Building on the assessments, STAR-Fish supported the development of Gender Action Plans designed to translate analysis into practical actions.

These plans identify opportunities to strengthen participation, improve access to information and training, support leadership development, and address barriers that limit equitable participation within fisheries and aquaculture sectors.

Rather than treating gender equality as a standalone activity, the project seeks to integrate these considerations throughout implementation, from stakeholder engagement and capacity development to technical assessments and future investments.

This approach helps ensure that gender equality becomes part of how decisions are made, rather than an additional activity undertaken after decisions have already been taken. 

Knowledge Product Spotlight 

Powering Change: Fueling a Gender-Responsive Energy Transition in Fisheries

Developed under STAR-Fish, this training programme provides practical guidance for integrating gender equality and social inclusion into fisheries and renewable energy initiatives across the Caribbean.

Equipping Stakeholders for a Just Transition

Understanding gender dynamics is only the first step. Achieving a just transition requires that stakeholders have the knowledge, skills, and tools needed to apply gender-responsive approaches in practice.

To support this objective, STAR-Fish developed a regional training programme focused on gender equality and social inclusion in the context of fisheries and renewable energy transition. The programme was designed to help fisheries practitioners, government officers, community leaders, and other stakeholders better understand how gender influences participation, access to resources, decision-making, and the distribution of benefits within fisheries value chains.

The training package goes beyond awareness-raising by providing practical tools and approaches that can be applied during project planning, stakeholder engagement, policy development, and implementation. Topics include gender analysis, inclusive participation, barriers to equitable access, and strategies for promoting meaningful engagement of women and youth in fisheries development initiatives.

The programme formed the basis for a series of regional and national capacity-building activities that brought together stakeholders from across participating countries. These engagements created opportunities for dialogue, peer learning, and reflection on how renewable energy investments and broader fisheries development initiatives can be designed to support more inclusive outcomes.

By strengthening institutional and individual capacity, STAR-Fish is helping to ensure that gender equality becomes an integral part of decision-making and implementation processes rather than a standalone consideration.

Building Capacity for Inclusive Change

Creating more inclusive fisheries systems requires both awareness and skills.

Through a series of regional and national activities, STAR-Fish has supported dialogue and learning around gender-responsive fisheries development, renewable energy transition, and social inclusion.

These activities have brought together fisheries practitioners, government representatives, community stakeholders, and development partners to explore practical approaches for strengthening participation and reducing barriers faced by women and youth.

Importantly, these discussions have also helped broaden understanding that gender equality benefits entire communities by improving economic opportunities, strengthening resilience, and supporting more effective resource management.

Why Gender Equality Matters for Renewable Energy Transition

The shift towards renewable energy has the potential to reshape fisheries value chains.

New technologies can reduce operating costs, improve product quality, strengthen cold-chain systems, and create new economic opportunities. However, if access to these technologies is limited to those who already possess resources, financing, or decision-making authority, existing inequalities may deepen.

A gender-responsive approach helps ensure that the benefits of innovation are distributed more equitably. It encourages consideration of who has access to equipment, financing, information, training, and leadership opportunities. It also helps identify unintended barriers that may prevent certain groups from benefiting from project investments.

In this way, gender equality is not separate from energy transition; it is fundamental to ensuring that the transition is inclusive, effective, and sustainable.

Looking Ahead

As STAR-Fish moves into implementation, gender equality will remain a cross-cutting priority across all project activities.

Future renewable energy interventions, low-carbon fisheries initiatives, stakeholder engagement activities, and capacity-building programmes will continue to apply lessons emerging from the project's gender assessments and action plans.

By placing people at the centre of the transition, STAR-Fish aims to support a future in which cleaner energy systems contribute not only to environmental sustainability, but also to greater opportunity, resilience, and inclusion across Caribbean fisheries and aquaculture communities.

Introduction: Why Change is Needed

Across the Caribbean, fisheries and aquaculture play a vital role in food security, employment, and coastal livelihoods. Yet the sector remains highly dependent on fossil fuels, exposing fishers, processors, and aquaculture operators to volatile energy prices, supply disruptions, and increasing climate-related risks.

Recognizing these challenges, the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM), with support from the Government of Canada through Global Affairs Canada, launched the Sustainable Technologies for Adaptation and Resilience in Fisheries (STAR-Fish) Project. The initiative seeks to support a transition towards cleaner, more resilient, and more inclusive fisheries systems across eight Caribbean countries.

While much attention is often placed on physical investments and technology deployment, successful transformation begins long before equipment is installed. It requires strong institutions, evidence-based planning, stakeholder engagement, and a clear understanding of the social, environmental, and economic realities facing the sector.

The first phase of STAR-Fish has therefore focused on creating the foundations necessary to support meaningful and sustainable change.

Building the Enabling Environment for Change

Transforming energy use within fisheries and aquaculture requires more than identifying suitable technologies. It requires governance systems capable of supporting implementation, accountability mechanisms that ensure transparency, and processes that enable participation by those most affected by the transition.

During its initial years, STAR-Fish established the management, oversight, monitoring, and safeguards systems needed to guide implementation across eight participating countries. These systems now provide a framework for consistently and transparently planning, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating future investments.

Emphasis has been placed on environmental and social safeguards, ensuring that proposed interventions are environmentally responsible, socially inclusive, and responsive to stakeholder concerns. The project has also introduced mechanisms to support stakeholder participation and grievance management, helping to strengthen accountability throughout implementation.

Taken together, these efforts provide a strong institutional platform for future renewable energy and low-carbon fisheries interventions.

Putting People at the Centre of the Energy Transition

The transition to cleaner energy systems is not only a technical challenge; it is also a social one.

Across the Caribbean, women and men often participate differently within fisheries and aquaculture value chains. Women are frequently concentrated in post-harvest processing, marketing, and supporting roles, while remaining underrepresented in decision-making and access to productive assets.

Recognizing this reality, STAR-Fish has embedded gender equality and the facilitation of a just transition as a core element of project implementation rather than treating it as a standalone activity.

Through regional and national assessments, stakeholder consultations, and targeted capacity-building initiatives, the project has worked to better understand how energy transition opportunities and challenges may affect different groups. This process has informed the development of Gender Action Plans and practical recommendations aimed at ensuring that women, men, and youth can participate equitably in the benefits generated through renewable energy investments.

By placing social inclusion at the centre of project planning, STAR-Fish is helping to ensure that the transition to cleaner energy strengthens livelihoods while reducing existing inequalities.

Generating the Evidence for Investment

A key challenge facing the fisheries sector is the limited availability of information needed to guide investment decisions.

Questions such as where renewable energy technologies can provide the greatest benefit, which fisheries offer the strongest opportunities for low-carbon development, and what financing mechanisms are most appropriate for small-scale operators require careful analysis.

STAR-Fish has therefore invested heavily in generating the evidence base required to support future action. Ongoing assessments are examining fisheries and aquaculture value chains, evaluating renewable energy opportunities, identifying barriers to adoption, and exploring pathways for low-carbon fisheries certification.

These studies will provide governments, financial institutions, development partners, and fisheries stakeholders with practical information to support future investments and policy development.

Building Partnerships Across the Region

Regional transformation cannot be achieved by any single institution.

The STAR-Fish approach recognizes that lasting change requires collaboration among governments, fisheries authorities, fisherfolk organizations, development partners, academic institutions, financial institutions, and private sector actors.

Over the past two years, the project has established and strengthened relationships with stakeholders across participating countries, creating opportunities for dialogue, knowledge sharing, and collective problem-solving.

These partnerships will become increasingly important as the project moves from assessment and planning toward implementation and demonstration activities.

Looking Ahead

With the foundations now in place, STAR-Fish is entering an important new phase.

Over the coming years, the project will support the identification and implementation of renewable energy solutions, advance low-carbon fisheries initiatives, strengthen awareness and technical capacity, and work with stakeholders to unlock investment opportunities that support a resilient and sustainable future for Caribbean fisheries and aquaculture.

The lessons emerging from this work will not only benefit participating countries but will also contribute to broader regional efforts to address climate change, improve energy security, and strengthen sustainable blue economy development.

Belize City, Tuesday, 2 June 2026 (CRFM)—Amid rising energy costs and growing climate pressures affecting Caribbean Fisheries and Aquaculture, the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM) is ramping up clean energy interventions under the CAD4.324 million STAR-Fish Project: “Sustainable Technologies for Adaptation and Resilience in Fisheries.”

Implementation activities across participating countries—Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Suriname—will focus on strengthening the resilience and competitiveness of fisheries and aquaculture through clean energy solutions and low-carbon development. Planned interventions include the identification and deployment of renewable energy technologies, including cold storage solutions to improve cold chain efficiency, as well as support for selected fisheries to pursue low-carbon certification.

Participants engaged in the “Powering Change: Fueling a Gender-Responsive Energy Transition in Fisheries” training and workshop series held in Grenada during Year 2 of the STAR-Fish Project’s Gender Equality and Social Inclusion consultancy implemented by EnGen Collaborative.

At the 2^nd Regional Project Steering Committee Meeting held on 14 May 2026, Sherron Barker, Regional Project Coordinator for the STAR-Fish Project, presented the approved 2026–2027 Work Plan and Budget, which will guide the next phase of implementation. Key near-term priorities include developing viable business models to support investment in clean energy technologies, advancing the conversion of selected fish processing operations, and strengthening market opportunities for low-carbon certified fisheries.

Ms. Ena Ćimić, STAR-Fish Project Lead at the High Commission of Canada to Jamaica, representing Global Affairs Canada (GAC), acknowledged that the Caribbean’s fisheries and aquaculture sectors are important drivers of economic activity, livelihoods, and food security across the region. Addressing the meeting, she noted that, “the sectors also remain highly vulnerable to climate change, rising energy costs, and evolving market demands.”

Ms. Ćimić added: “the activities implemented through this project position STAR-Fish to further strengthen institutional capacity, advance gender-responsive approaches, and support the adoption of sustainable energy technologies within the fisheries and aquaculture sector, while also improving access to finance, enhancing competitiveness, and building resilience to climate and disaster risks across participating countries.”

Reflecting on progress during the previous year, Dr. Marc Williams, Executive Director of the CRFM Secretariat, noted that STAR-Fish advanced key technical workstreams, including renewable energy business model development, carbon footprinting, and low-carbon certification processes. He added that Project Year 2 marked an important transition as the project moved from foundational planning toward more structured and coordinated implementation across participating countries.

Westmoreland, Jamaica Seamoss farmers participated in consultations and capacity-building activities under the “Powering Change: Fueling a Gender-Responsive Energy Transition in Fisheries” initiative implemented through the STAR-Fish Project’s Gender Equality and Social Inclusion consultancy led by EnGen Collaborative.

Dr. Williams added: “One of the project’s key achievements during the reporting period was the completion of major activities on gender equality and social inclusion. This work strengthened understanding of gender and social issues associated with the clean energy transition, supported the development of national and regional guidance tools through Gender Action Plans (GAPs) for Belize, Grenada, Jamaica, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and advanced gender-responsive capacity building and stakeholder engagement across participating countries.”

Ms. Ćimić said that GAC welcomed STAR-Fish’s gender-responsive approach, vital to strengthening national capacities, promoting inclusion, and ensuring that the benefits of the clean energy transition are shared equitably.

“This aligns with Canada’s priorities of advancing gender equality, climate action, and sustainable, inclusive growth, while also supporting expanded trade opportunities in the region,” she said, pledging GAC’s continued support for the CRFM initiative.

Dr. Williams said that the project now enters Project Year 3 with “activities underway, strengthened governance arrangements, and a clearer pathway toward the practical application of renewable energy solutions across fisheries value chains in the Caribbean.”

“We look forward to continuing to work with all of you to support effective implementation and to contribute to a more resilient, sustainable, and inclusive Caribbean fisheries sector,” Ćimić affirmed.

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Belize City, Thursday, 19 June 2025 (CRFM)—The Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM) is moving full speed ahead with the implementation of the Canada-funded STAR-Fish Project: “Sustainable Technologies for Adaptation and Resilience in Fisheries.” This CAD 4 million initiative is designed to increase clean energy transition in Caribbean fisheries and aquaculture while building resilience, by addressing the need to improve competitiveness and unleash key economic drivers.

This month, the CRFM Secretariat welcomed two highly experienced project staff: Mr. Sherrón Barker – Regional Project Coordinator, and Mrs. Daintyann Barrett-Smith – Environmental and Social Safeguards Specialist.

"The STAR-Fish Project represents an important opportunity to drive innovation and sustainability in Caribbean fisheries. I am honoured to support our partners in delivering real progress on climate resilience, gender equity, and clean energy transition in this critical sector for our region’s economies and communities," Mr. Barker said.

He joined the CRFM Secretariat in Belize City in February 2025, as the Environmental and Social Safeguards Officer under another regional initiative – the GEF/FAO/CRFM BE-CLME+ Project titled, “Promoting National Blue Economy Priorities Through Marine Spatial Planning in the Caribbean Large Marine Ecosystem Plus.” He previously worked as Project Manager for the Sustainable Seabed Knowledge Initiative, at the International Seabed Authority in Jamaica from 2023 to 2024.

In his new role as the Regional Project Coordinator for the STAR-Fish Project, Mr. Barker will oversee and coordinate the implementation of STAR-Fish. He also holds responsibility for planning, implementing, and ensuring the delivery of timely and quality project outputs.

Complementing his work, Mrs. Barrett-Smith will assess environmental and social risks, recommend solutions, ensure compliance with the relevant environmental and social safeguard policies and standards, as well as provide technical support for the implementation of the project and its activities. She will also lead the development of an environmental and social screening checklist for the project. She is furthermore tasked with identifying mitigation and corrective measures which may be required by the project. Of note is that Mrs. Barnett-Smith has also been retained to fill the role vacated by Mr. Barker as the Environmental and Social Safeguards Officer for the BE-CLME+ Project.

In 2024, Global Affairs Canada (GAC) approved the implementation of STAR-Fish—a four-year project which was developed by the CRFM to address climate resilience in the Caribbean. The Government of Canada, through Global Affairs Canada, has donated CAD 4 million to the project, while the CRFM has committed CAD 324,000 in counterpart funding. Although this project is being implemented in countries eligible for Official Development Assistance (ODA)—namely Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Suriname—the CRFM Secretariat is committed to ensuring that other Member States across the region garner as many spin-off benefits as possible.

The fisheries sector consumes energy across its value chain, particularly for fish processing—cooling, cleaning, drying, and freezing. The STAR-Fish Project seeks to demonstrate that energy costs can be substantially reduced by transitioning to renewable energy technologies. The project intends to ultimately increase clean energy transition in Caribbean fisheries and aquaculture by applying a gender-responsive approach to its interventions, as it supports the certification of low carbon or carbon neutral fisheries in the region and facilitates technical collaboration and knowledge exchange.

The STAR-Fish Project is pivotal for the advancement of the CRFM’s 2022-2030 Strategic Plan. It particularly supports the attainment of Strategic Goal 4, which envisions “Increased use of renewable energy and energy efficient harvesting, processing, and cold storage systems, and reduction of the region’s reliance on fossil fuels in fisheries and aquaculture.”

– END –

About Global Affairs Canada:

Global Affairs Canada (GAC)—under the leadership of the Minister of Foreign Affairs; the Minister of International Trade; the Minister of Canada-U.S. Trade, Intergovernmental Affairs; and the Secretary of State of International Development—is responsible for advancing Canada’s international relations, including, inter alia: developing and implementing foreign policy; fostering the development of international law, international trade and commerce; and providing international assistance (encompassing humanitarian, development, and peace and security).

Vacancy for a Environmental and Safeguard Specialist  to provide technical support for the implementation of the Star-Fish Project

Vacancy for  a Project Coordinator to oversee and coordinate the implementation of the Star-Fish Project

Belize City, Tuesday, 29 October 2024 (CRFM)—Caribbean ministers responsible for Fisheries, Aquaculture, and the Blue Economy held fruitful deliberations during the 18th Caribbean Week of Agriculture (CWA), convened by the CARICOM Secretariat in partnership with the host country—Saint Vincent and the Grenadines—from 7 – 11 October 2024. The 14th Special Meeting of the Ministerial Council of the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM) concluded with a firm commitment to improve climates-smart blue economic growth from the marine living resources and tackling the state of fisheries and aquaculture in the Caribbean through expanded production across the 17 CRFM Member States, to improve food security and jobs. At the conclusion of the week’s events, representatives of the CARICOM Member States convened the 115th Meeting of the CARICOM Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED), which endorsed significant decisions to strategically accelerate blue economic growth, including aquaculture transformation in our region.

Mr. Milton Haughton, Executive Director, Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM) Secretariat; Honourable Josephine Olivia Connolly, Minister of Tourism, Environment, Fisheries and Marine Affairs, Culture and Heritage, Agriculture and Religious Affairs, The Turks and Caicos Islands – Chair of the CRFM Ministerial Council; and Mrs. Kathy Lockhart, Acting Director of Fisheries, The Turks and Caicos Islands – Chair of the Caribbean Fisheries Forum of the CRFM (Photo: CRFM Secretariat)

“These meetings of regional policy-makers were a crucial opportunity to address some of the most pressing challenges in the blue economy and fisheries sector. The decisions we made will help to protect marine ecosystems while supporting food security and the livelihoods of those who depend on our coastal and marine resources,” said Honourable Josephine Olivia Connolly, Minister of Tourism, Environment, Fisheries and Marine Affairs, Culture and Heritage, Agriculture and Religious Affairs, The Turks and Caicos Islands – Chair of the CRFM Ministerial Council, in an official statement following the CRFM meeting.

The CRFM Ministerial Council sets the policy direction of the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism, and it is the highest decision-making body of the organization. The Council is comprised of ministers from the 17 Member States of the CRFM. (Photo: CRFM Secretariat)

During its 14^th Special Meeting, the CRFM Ministerial Council deliberated upon priority policies and actions needed to advance the work of the CRFM and its Member States, building upon the decisions made during the 18th Regular Meeting of the CRFM Ministerial Council held in April this year.

“Our previous meeting in April 2024 saw significant progress with the adoption of the resolutions that have helped guide our work... We have the opportunity to further advance these initiatives and solidify our commitment to ensuring the sustainability of our marine resources,” Minister Connolly told her fellow ministers at the start of their deliberations.

The Ministers held extensive discussions following a presentation by the CRFM Secretariat on the status and trends of the fisheries and aquaculture sector in the CARICOM region, which indicated that for the most recent reporting period (2021/2022), domestic production (which excludes high seas fisheries production) stood at approximately 158,000 metric tonnes, valued at US $575 million. Aquaculture accounts for 6% of this production (8,777 tonnes), while marine capture fisheries in areas under the national jurisdiction of Member States accounts for the remainder.

Honourable Saboto S. Caesar, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries, Rural Transformation, Industry and Labour, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, highlighted the need for priority attention to be given to boosting production and productivity across the region, particularly from the under-utilized and unutilized resources beyond the coastal waters.

“What percentage of our marine economy is left unharvested that should be harvested, and how [are] we going to set about having an increase in production and productivity to lift our numbers?” he questioned, noting the need for the successes of Member States [such as Grenada in developing their tuna fisheries and Saint Lucia in boosting sea moss aquaculture], to be quickly replicated across the region.

“Grenada is a shining example of what can happen in longline fishing for tuna from a micro-state. Grenada is in the OECS [Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States]; Grenada is in CARICOM; Grenada is covered by the CRFM—so is Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Dominica, and the others around the table! Jamaica, for example, did excellent work in aquaculture. Saint Lucia has done excellent work with sea moss production, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, we are trying to model what we're doing from Saint Lucia...” Minister Caesar added.

Mr. Milton Haughton, Executive Director, Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM) Secretariat, noted that growth in aquaculture and the blue economy requires targeted and strategic policy actions and investments. These actions include (i) strengthening capacities at the CRFM Secretariat, the National Fisheries Administrations and private sector of Member States to provide the leadership and expertise needed to steer blue economic growth, including aquaculture development; (ii) mobilizing resources from multilateral and bilateral donors as well as private sector partners to provide the finances and investments needed to modernize the sector and realize blue economic growth; (iii) enhancing regional and national policy and legal and institutional frameworks to incentivize and support the envisioned transformation; and (iv) address biosecurity controls and other technical and marketing challenges to minimize the risk of losses and to build a profitable, resilient and sustainable sector. These necessary actions have been incorporated by the Ministers into the resolutions passed at the conclusion of their deliberations.

Haughton noted that the Caribbean lags far behind in aquaculture production, although globally aquaculture produces most of the seafood (including fish) that people eat. He added that aquaculture production today is mostly done in the marine environment—called mariculture, which is the ideal approach for Caribbean countries, most of which have limited land spaces and freshwater availability but large ocean spaces.

The Ministers requested that the CRFM prioritizes the development of aquaculture regionally and that it prepares a modernization strategy with technical support from a cadre of aquaculture experts from across the region, including persons comprising the CRFM Working Group on Aquaculture.

Another major development discussed during the 14th Special Meeting of the Ministerial Council is the innovative work being done by the CRFM and the New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Ltd, under the New Zealand-funded Sargassum Products for Climate Resilience in the Caribbean Project, to utilize Sargassum, which is a valuable marine resource, to develop a viable and safe biostimulant to enhance plant growth. This initiative to valorize Sargassum was the showpiece of one of the CRFM’s technical events at CWA 2024, held under the theme: Climate Smart Agriculture for a Sustainable Future.

“We have worked with our partners in the region to design a process that gets rid of [virtually all] of the heavy metals, and we have been able to produce this biostimulant that tested and performed very well in the greenhouse and initial field trials with farmers. The field trials are wrapping up, but the initial findings indicate that it has contributed very well to plant growth,” Haughton said.

“This is a win-win situation. We are still at the early stages. We have the product now, and we will be doing further development work in Jamaica with a private sector partner, where we will set up a pilot production plant. We hope that the pilot commercial type operation will demonstrate a viable and efficient production process that will produce a good organic-based fertilizer from… Sargassum that has been a problem and a challenge for us. Fertilizer is a required input by farmers, and it is very expensive. If we can produce an effective fertilizer/bio-stimulant from Sargassum that can help reduce the high import bill of fertilizer, that would be good for our farmers and help to achieve our goal of reducing the region’s large food import bill,” he added.

The Ministers also provided guidance for the development of a CARICOM Regional Strategy for Mainstreaming Global Biodiversity Considerations in Fisheries and Aquaculture Policies and Practices, which should be returned to them for their review and approval at their next meeting due in April 2025.

They also reviewed the progress being made under the GEF/CAF/FAO/CRFM BE-CLME+ Project: Promoting National Blue Economy Priorities through Marine Spatial Planning in the Caribbean Large Marine Ecosystem Plus, and provided guidance on the way forward to advance several regional initiatives, including a new project funded by Global Affairs Canada titled, Sustainable Technologies for Adaptation and Resilience in Fisheries or the STAR-Fish Project.

To round out their work, the Ministers addressed the need for the CRFM to facilitate strengthened disaster recovery from hurricanes and other severe weather events, such as Hurricane Beryl, a major hurricane which struck several Caribbean islands, including Grenada, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Barbados, Saint Lucia, and Jamaica, in July 2024.

Apart from the Special Meeting of the Ministerial Council, the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism hosted two hybrid public events at CWA 2024, with a focus on Promoting Climate-Smart and Resilient Fisheries and Aquaculture for Food Sovereignty & Food Security, and a Sustainable & Profitable Future. The Sargassum Seminar on Supporting Climate-Smart Fisheries, Aquaculture, and Agriculture through Product Innovation was held on Wednesday, 9 October 2024, in partnership with Plant and Food Research of New Zealand; while the Caribbean Small-Scale Fisheries & Aquaculture Forum took place on Tuesday, 8 October 2024, at the same venue.

The CRFM Secretariat also partnered with the Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Fisheries Services to showcase their work, aimed at strengthening the Fisheries and Aquaculture sector, at the CWA 2024 Tradeshow and Expo which ran the entire week, from 7 – 11 October, at the Kingstown Cruise Ship Terminal.

– ENDS –