- DIGI-FISH PROJECT LAUNCHED
National Fisherfolk Organisation and the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Environment Fund has launched a project to deal directly with fisherfolk’s safety at sea utilizing adequate technology.
Speaking at the launch ceremony on Monday 16th December, 2024 at the Fisheries Division conference room, Manager of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Environment Fund, Stephan Hornsey, gave an overview of the project.
He stated that the DigiFish Project is a program, modelled by the Barbados Environment Conservation Trust and the Barbados Fisheries Division that involves the installation of 30 Pelagic Data Systems satellite monitoring devices on small-scale fishing vessels across three project sites on the islands of St. Vincent, Bequia and Union Island.
The project is a two-fold approach that focuses on safety at sea and fisheries management and is aimed at capturing relative information such as live location, area covered and even the speed of the vessels. This data will be used to make more informed decisions towards management of fisheries as well as capturing fishing type methods and mapping fishing activities to assess fisherfolk safety.
Eldon O’Garrow, a member of the National Fisherfolk Organisation expressed his gratitude stating “With this device, we are able to not only compile information to our benefit but to establish the industry a little further, and I must say I am grateful to be a part of this pilot project and I hope going forward, it can be extended to other fisherfolks.”
Minister of Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries, Hon. Saboto Caesar added “As part of the rebuilding better, we are not only going to participate in assisting more than 100 persons with these devices, we are going to ensure that it is a part and parcel of the regulatory framework coming out of the revised Fisheries Act”.
