Overfishing Threats to the Quantity, Timing and Quality of Freshwater Inflows and Estuary Health

6.6 Overfishing

Overfishing and destructive fishing practices are affecting the health of the Samana Bay estuary. Over exploitation has reduced catch of shrimp Penaeus schmitti and various estuarine fish significantly. The fishery in Samana Bay is artisanal, using methods of cast net and gill net Silva and Aquino, 1993; Aquino and Silva, 1995. One study found that the number of fishers using cast nets and gill nets to be about equal Zorrilla, et. al., 1995. The growing length of nets and increasing small size of the mesh has resulted in smaller and smaller average size of caught fish. It was reported to the site reconnaissance team that some of the gill nets are so long they cross the bay. To give a sense of the impact of net fishing, a study about a decade ago determined that there were about 42 kilometers of nets in a fishing zone 17 kilometers wide Zorrilla, et. al., 1995. The prohibition of gill nets has been suggested as a way to diminish pressure on the shrimp fishery Zorrilla, et. al., 1995. Another net used is a drag net known as “licuadora” “blender”, which causes serious damage to marine habitat by destroying the natural stratification of sediment and creating large amounts of turbidity Sang et al., 1997. There is no program of training and technical assistance directed toward the fishing sector. Silva and Aquino 1993 and Aquino and Silva 1995 found that the number of fishers in Samana Bay had been increasing by 70 per year. From 1984 to 1990, the number of fishers grew from 1,197 to 2,512 CEBSE, 1994. SEMARN 2001 reports government data on fish catch of key species from Samana Bay for 1986 and 1997. Three fisheries are distinguished: estuarine, sea grass and coral reef, and oceanic. Among these, catch of the oceanic fishery increased, the fishery around coral reef and sea grass dependent species remained the same although with large changes in the types of fish caught, and the estuarine fishery declined significantly from 1,420 tons to 449 tons Table 6. As a result of the decline in the abundance of other estuarine fish, shrimp has risen from eighth place in terms of tons of catch tons to second place. IRG 2001 reports that another study prepared for CEBSE indicated a drop in fisheries production from the Samana estuary of 1.86 tons per km 2 to 0.48 km 2 from 1980 to 1994. The continued over 36 exploitation of the Bay’s fishery could lead to the disappearance of the fishery as a valued economic activity for communities such as Sánchez. Table 6. Estuarine Fish Catch in Samaná Bay over the period 1986-1997 tons Common Name Species National Office of Statistics 1986 Secretary of Agriculture 1997 Machuelo Atlantic Thread Herring Opistonema oglinum 306 188 Sábalo Tarpon Megalops atlanticus 280 27 Lisa Mullet family Mugil lisa 150 59 Corvina Reef Croaker Odontiscion dentex 127 14 Mojarra Yellowfin Mojarra Gerres cinereus 108 12 Macabí Bonefish Albula vulpes 103 16 Ostión Mangrove Oyster Cassostrea rizophorae 99 6 Camarón Shrimp Penaeidae 94 79 Robalo Bonefish Centropomus spp. 65 24 Cangrejo Blue Crab Callinectes sapidus 60 14 Machete Atlantic Cutlassfish Trichiurus lepturus 29 9 Total 1420 449

6.7 Aquaculture