A recent report for one of ExxonMobil’s proposed well-campaigns for the Stabroek Block has placed the spotlight on the key reason behind the nation’s dwindling fish stock. Though there are concerns that the oil industry is a contributing factor, the report lends no credence to this theory. In fact, the report states that Guyana has seen a declining trend since 2013, two years before the discovery of oil.
The details of this trend were outlined in ExxonMobil Guyana’s Cumulative Impact Assessment (CIA) for a 35 multi-well programme in the Stabroek Block.
According to data pulled by ERM Guyana Inc. from the Private Sector Commission (PSC), the Ministry of Finance, the Bank of Guyana and the Ministry of Agriculture, fishery yields declined between 2013 and 2015. The PSC attributed this to El Niño-related weather phenomena, while the Ministry of Finance characterised this as part of a longer-term decline caused by unsustainable overfishing, including illegal fishing by foreign vessels. This continued for several years but faced further challenges in 2020 due to COVID-19 restrictions and related changes in demand for fish products.
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In general, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the report states that many companies working in the fishing industry reduced the number of staff working on a given day. Fisheries plants were closed between April and August 2020 as a result of COVID-19 restrictions, and a reduced number of vessels went out to sea (resulting in lower fishing production) throughout the year.
In 2021, the report states that the fishing sector had mixed output, which ultimately resulted in a 6.6% decline. The year 2022 also yielded declines relative to 2021.
According to the Fisheries Department in the report, the reasons for the decline in fish catch can generally be attributed to either the depletion or the migration of stock.
It was noted that the Fisheries Department has a programme of reviewing stock assessments of sea bobs and bycatch to further understand recent trends. Fishing interests and the Fisheries Department personnel also acknowledged the prevalence of illegal fishing by both foreign and domestic vessels but did not specifically implicate illegal fishing in the decline of stock in recent years.
The Ministry of Finance’s 2021 Mid-Year Report offered an additional theory, indicating that a decrease in finfish and shrimp production could be attributed to salinity changes in the coastal waters.
In the last decade, the contribution of the fishing subsector to Guyana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) peaked at GY$25.76 billion in 2014 and subsequently declined to GY$11.45 billion in 2020.
The Guyana Government is currently pursuing a suite of onshore measures such as marine cages to boost the sector’s output.
