Peter Espeut, Contributor
WE COULDN'T see it, but 'Ivan' did a lot of damage to the marine environment. Even now most people haven't seen it because the damage has mostly taken place under water. The damage to coral reefs and mangroves is no less serious than the damage to trees and forests; the damage to capture fisheries is no less serious than the damage to agriculture.
One of the natural functions of coral reefs and mangroves is to protect the shoreline from storm damage by slowing down incoming high-energy waves. Persons from Portland Cottage have told me that they are aware that the damage to life and property would have been far worse if the mangroves had not been there. The West Harbour mangroves surrounding Portland Cottage bore the force of the incoming storm surge, and in the process took a battering. Before that, the coral reefs in Portland Bight bore the brunt of the same waves, slowing them down before they approached the mangroves, and got damaged in the process.
CORAL, MANGROVES
Here I lament the damage to coral reefs and mangroves caused by Hurricane 'Ivan', but at the same time I rejoice that they did their duty - to the benefit of humanity. It is the unnecessary damage to reefs and mangroves (that benefits no one) that is most disturbing. Trap fishing for reef fish is still common in Jamaica. Fish pots made of mesh wire and sticks are usually baited and set in the sand channels near coral reefs to attract reef fish (here I am being kind; unfortunately too many fishers still set their traps actually on top of the coral reefs). When storms pass nearby, the swells and surges lift up the traps and dash them against the reefs. The constant rubbing of the mesh wire against the coral scours them, scraping off the live coral animals, thus killing the reefs.
This is unnecessary reef death and may be prevented by fishers bringing their traps back to shore if enough advance warning can be given of an impending hurricane. To compound the environmental problem, after every storm thousands of fishpots get lost at sea. Because fishpot piracy is so prevalent, most fishers no longer mark their positions with floats and haul on the float ropes to bring the traps into the boat for emptying. Fishers now use transits, the lining up of features on the land, to locate the approximate position of their traps, and then they locate the exact position by dragging for the pot with a "creeper", snagging the mesh.
FURTHER DAMAGE
The simple fact is that when storms pass nearby, the swells and surges lift the traps and change their position, and fishers simply are not able to find them again; and in searching for them they may do further damage to the reefs with their creeper. What is worse is that many of these pots are not destroyed, but continue to catch fish in their new location for as long as 6-8 months down the road (some refer to them as "ghost traps"). These caught fish will die and rot in the traps which will never be found and emptied.
Jamaica already has the most overfished waters in the Caribbean, and our total catch has fallen dramatically in recent decades. Jamaica cannot afford to lose tens of thousands of pounds of fish in this way which could feed thousands of Jamaicans and prevent the import of millions of dollars worth of fish. This is unnecessary fish death and may be prevented by fishers bringing their traps back to shore if enough advance warning of an impending hurricane is given.
NEW TRAPS
It gets even worse! Having lost their pots, fishers will build new traps and replace them near to the ones already lost. We will now have two sets of traps seeking to catch the few fish we have left, and our level of overfishing will dramatically increase. The fishers will appeal to the government for assistance with replacing their lost traps, and taxpayers money or aid money will be used to finance overfishing. This is unnecessary fish death and may be prevented by fishers bringing their traps back to shore if enough advance warning is given of an impending hurricane.
It is going to be cheaper - and better for the environment - to spend the money to bring in the traps than to leave them there to do long-term damage to the reefs and medium-term damage to the fishery (win-win). We had lots of advance warning before Hurricane 'Ivan' hit our southern coastal waters. We could have broadcast advice to fishers to bring in their traps, which if followed, would have reduced the damage.
COULD HAVE BEEN AVOIDED
I keep saying that much of the devastation caused by Hurricane 'Ivan' was man-made or human-induced, and could have been avoided. The fishers I have mentioned this idea to have not liked it one bit! They say it will cost them thousands of dollars in fuel to bring in their traps (they will need to make more than one trip). They prefer to leave the pots in the sea to do damage, and then collect compensation from the government. Using total cost accounting which is more expensive? To spend on the gas and save the pots, or to build new traps to set on top of ghost traps?
One mitigating option would be to ask the fishers to at least leave their trapdoors open so that the fish can escape; another would be to follow the practice done elsewhere of building fishpots with a fast corroding metal strip in the right place (easily replaceable) which will cause an escape hole to be created after a number of days of inattention. In both these options the traps would still be lost, but they would not become ghost traps. Here too with a little thought and planning we can minimise the human-induced side of hurricane damage.
Peter Espeut is a sociologist and is executive director of an environment and development NGO.
