The Bahamas wants to double its annual seafood exports to around USD 200 million (EUR 163 million), according to the Bahamian news website Tribune242.
Bahama's Minister of Agriculture and Marine Resources, Renward Wells, was reported by the news site as saying that “he had set himself the 'goal' of doubling the Bahamas' annual USD 90 million (EUR 73 million) fisheries exports.”
This pronouncement was welcomed by local fishers, with Bahamas Commercial Fishers Alliance Vice-President Keith Carroll agreeing that the Bahamas “was only scratching the surface of its fisheries potential.”
"We don't fish our ocean; only our banks," he said. "From Abaco to Inagua is our territorial waters. We have tuna, sword fish and all other kinds of other fish in these waters that we could export. We need to look at other types of fish and not just concentrate on lobster, grouper and snapper.”
Spiny lobster makes up the bulk of the country's seafood export revenue. The report “Fisheries and Aquaculture in the Bahamas: A Review,” by the FAO and the country's Department of Marine Resources, notes that “in 2015, the combined value of lobster tails, live lobster and whole frozen that was exported by The Bahamas added up to USD 63 million (EUR 51 million).”
“The Bahamian lobster fishery exploits the relatively shallow and productive waters of the Little Bahama Bank, located in the north, and the much larger Great Bahama Bank, situated in the west, south and central areas of the archipelago,” the report states. “The main commercially targeted fisheries species in the Bahamas are spiny lobster, queen conch, groupers, snappers and jacks. Stone crabs are also targeted for their claws.”
The Tribune242 reports Wells as saying “that this nation's fisheries exports – [USD] 70 million of which are spiny lobster and crawfish, and the remaining 20 million conch, stone crab and snapper – represented an important avenue to increase the Bahamas' foreign currency earnings. [He] also suggested there is the potential to catch other fish such as tuna and wahoo for export.”
Whereas the fisheries sector contributes just one percent to the country's GDP, “the exports of fish and fisheries products in 2015 accounted for 31 percent of the domestic exports of The Bahamas. As such, the fisheries sector is a major contributor to reducing the trade deficit of The Bahamas,” according to the report.
