AN official of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) says Government may have to consider limiting the number of new fishermen to protect stocks of migratory fish, but a Government minister has dismissed the idea.
Minister of Housing, Lands and Rural Development Denis Kellman said Barbados had the “third largest sea mass” and fishing could be concentrated in any area offshore without overexploiting resources.
Secretary at the FAO’s Western Central Atlantic Fishery Commission, Raymon van Anrooy, said an increase in the number of fishermen was likely in light of the harsh economic and employment times the island was facing.
But overfishing, he said, could have a disastrous effect on the country’s food supply.
The FAO official, whose organisation had a booth at this year’s Agrofest exhibition, told the DAILY?NATION that currently, stocks of fish, like the much loved flying fish, were harvested sustainably.
