THE All-Island Fisheries Development Alliance member companies represent over 80 per cent of the industrial conch sector.

This industry earns approximately $2.7 billion in exports annually and employs thousands of artisanal fishermen and hundreds of persons from inner-city communities, the majority of whom are women who depend on working in the processing facilities for their livelihood.

With a surge in illegal fishing in Jamaica’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), the country’s fishers are becoming increasingly concerned about the negative effects on their livelihoods as well as the Jamaican society. The main concerns raised were the ineffectiveness of the law in protecting our territory and the need for harsher penalties to combat these illegal activities.

“…[R]ecent estimates have shown that Jamaica suffers losses of up to US$200 million from IUU [illegal, unreported, and unregulated] fishing, with significant losses from the highly lucrative conch and lobster trade,” Pearnel Charles Jr, (Ministry of Agriculture & Fisheries.

One recent example is the detention of 131 Hondurans for illegal fishing on the Pedro Banks. Of the 131, a total of 125 from the crew were fined $40,000 or two months in prison (as six were minors) while the captain of the vessel was fined $150,000 or three months in prison for fishing without a licence, $2,000 for failure to obey the command of the coast guard, and a fine of $3 million, or three months in prison, was also required for the damage caused to the coast guard’s vessel, Nanny of the Maroons.

The damage alone to the coast guard vessel exceeded the fine amount.

We, the All Island Fisheries Development Alliance, are deeply disappointed by this ruling, which amounts to a “slap on the wrist” by our judicial system given that Section 25(1) (a) of the Fisheries Act, 2018 states that if an individual “engages in fishing in Jamaica or in fisheries waters without an appropriate licence…” they will be fined $2 million, and/or two years in prison.

We are aware of the penalties imposed on our citizens who are caught in other EEZs, such as the recent detention of a Jamaican vessel in Colombian waters, and we condemn the actions of our country’s fishermen who were detained in Caribbean territories because we recognise that the rule of law within a sovereign State is critical for the protection of its citizens and their livelihoods.

However, we believe that, like other states in the region, harsher penalties such as vessel forfeiture are needed to deter illegal poaching or illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, both of which continue to harm our nation’s economy and our natural resources. The conch sector is on its way to recovering from a two-year shutdown which cost the industry thousands of jobs and billions in investments lost, with no assistance from the Government to recover thus far.

For the sake of transparency, we request that a full investigation and research be conducted on all vessels captured and released by our country’s coast guard versus Jamaican boats captured by our Caribbean neighbours, as well as the total number of non-Jamaican nationals detained as well as the penalties imposed on them. Jamaica needs to understand the consequences of these illegal activities on our economy, industry, and people start here.

(1) Alicia Dunkley-Willis, “Illegal Honduran Fishermen Fined $40k or 2 Months in Prison,” Jamaica Observer,

December 28, 2022.

(2) Barbara Gayle, “Honduran Fishermen Fined, Two in Quarantine Due to Malaria,” The Gleaner, December 29,

2022.

(3) Fisheries Act of 2018 § 25(1) (a)

(4) “Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade,” Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, November 5,

2022, https://mfaft.gov.jm/johnson-smith-updates-on-efforts-to-repatriate-jamaican-fishermen-fromcolombia/.