February 23, 2017 – Regional Workshop on sustainable spiny lobster fisheries
This morning a two-day workshop started in San José, Cosa Rica on the sustainability of Caribbean Spiny Lobster fisheries. The workshop marks the launch of “ECOLANGOSTA+” (2017-2019), a subproject of the UNDP/GEF CLME+ Project. The Central American Regional Fisheries Organization OSPESCA is responsible for the coordination of this subproject.
The workshop was opened by Mario Gonzalez, Regional Director of OSPESCA, Gustavo Meneses, Executive President of INCOPESCA, and Patrick Debels, Regional Coordinator of the UNDP/GEF CLME+ Project.
46 representatives from the Caribbean region are taking part in the workshop, among which fisheries and environmental experts, representatives from national governments and intergovernmental organisations such as OSPESCA and CRFM.
Countries represented at the meeting include The Bahamas, Belice, Costa Rica, Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panama and the Dominican Republic.
The workshop comes just prior to the formal launch of the 2017 simultaneous closed season for Spiny Lobster fisheries in SICA member countries*. The annual closed season runs from March 1st to June 30th each year. During this period the Caribbean Spiny Lobster cannot be caught or commercialized.
*SICA member countries include: Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador and Dominican Republic. Closed season in Belize runs from February 15th to June 15th.
Presentation in Spanish: Presentación Subproyecto CLME+
To download the meeting documents: Sica-Ospesca
