Sea egg poaching ‘on the decline’ – Minister

Sea egg harvesters are being praised for sticking to a nationwide ban, as Minister of Maritime Affairs and the Blue Economy Kirk Humphrey said their restraint made the one-month suspension of the ban possible.

A growing population of the urchins on the northern coast which made the temporary harvesting possible suggests that sea egg poaching is on the decline, Humphrey told Barbados TODAY.

He said: “I am very happy to see that Barbadians, for the most part, have stayed loyal to the ban.

“When the ban was implemented, they weren’t hunting the sea eggs and allowed them to regenerate themselves.

“Some people have called [into] question the ban date, but it will only be a month but at the end of the month we will make another assessment of the sea eggs populations.”

But before the ban on sea egg harvesting was lifted, a survey was done across the island to determine the location, quantities and maturity of the sea eggs and their capacity to replenish their stocks, the Minister said.

“All these things are taken into consideration before the ban is lifted,” Humphrey said. “So, we did the survey and it was revealed that there was an abundance of sea eggs across the north and east of the island.”

But the Maritime Affairs Minister noted that while Barbadians appear committed to the preservation of the endangered sea egg population, another major issue facing the future of the sea urchins, the quality of the nearshore water, which is linked to onshore pollution.

Humphrey added: “We have to manage now the runoffs from the terrestrial space into the ocean space. This is why we are consistently and continuously testing that the ocean acidity are at levels that would allow life to continue.

“We have to maintain the temperature of the water because the waters are getting warmer in the Caribbean and most of our Caribbean sea organisms are at their maximum thermal capacity, which means that they really cannot take an increase in the temperature of the water.

“We are doing all these things so that we can maintain this space.

“We are talking about marine management of our space and this is something that we are going to be proud of in the long run.”