Outreach and Education Advisory Panel (OEAP)

Report to the Council

153rd CFMC Regular MeetingAugust 19-20, 2015

Mayagüez Holiday Inn, PR

Alida Ortiz, OEAP Chairperson 2

CFMC’s O & E ongoing activities

• CFMC Report after each regular meeting available at www.caribbeanfmc.com

• CFMC Brochure is in the printing shop.• 2016 Calendar is under design; theme: Fishing

as a vocation. Anyone have photos of fishing families, traditional activities from USVI?

• Support for Lionfish control with UPRSG

7/14/14

Alida Ortiz, OEAP Chairperson 3

CFMC’s O & E ongoing activities

• Design Sustainable Seafood Campaign targeting consumers to consume other less known species, but just as delicious and healthy.

• Presentations from CFMC Staff (Graciela García-Moliner, Helena Antoune) to different audiences on fisheries related issues.

• MREP-Caribbean• PEPCO• USVI O & E

7/14/14

Alida Ortiz, OEAP Chairperson 4

MREP-SE-Caribbean InitiativeOutreach

• Next session will be in the USVI in 2016.• Fishers from USVI will go first to

Workshops in Florida and New England.• Steering Committee will be formed• Establish pertinent curriculum

7/14/14

MREP-SE-Caribbean InitiativeOutreach

• Post MREP-PR evaluation• Future action will deal with local law

enforcement issues• Establish new planning team for new issues• Recruit MREP participants to recruit new

fishers, coach presenters and refine the curricular content.

Alida Ortiz, OEAP Chairperson 67/14/14

PEPCO (Programa de Educación de Pesca Comercial

Outreach & Education USVI Style Lía Ortiz

• Reef Responsible:• We continue to develop our partnership with the US

Virgin Islands Department of Tourism.• We hope to expand to St. Thomas/St. John by the end

of this calendar year. • We hope to engage the local supermarkets and

distributors as well as local fishers in the near future. • We are up to 15 restaurants that have been trained

and that have received Reef Responsible Certification, including (most recently) LaReine Chicken Shack

MOES-VI Workshops Improve Commercial Fishing Community Awareness

and Compliance in the USVI

• Workshops with fishers across three U.S. Virgin Islands districts were held to increase awareness of fisheries management regulations and with aim to improve compliance.

• NOAA staff, in collaboration with local and regional management agency representatives, engaged 200 fishers with various presentations, information and resources.

• Fishers were given packets with information from different agencies, including a waterproof fish measurement tool, a summary of fishing regulations in territorial and federal waters, and a fish identification guide.

• The three-day workshops, held in both St. Croix and St. Thomas, were hosted by the U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Planning and Natural Resources, with support from the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program.

Alida Ortiz, OEAP Chairperson 97/14/14

QUESTIONS? COMMENTS?