Find Fisheries expertise in Guyana

Fisheries, along with forestry and agriculture, contribute 31% of Guyana’s GDP. Guyana also has a coastline of 432 km, and an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of 138,240 km². A small ornamental fish industry for the aquarium fish trade is operated by licensed exporters who export to the USA and Europe.

Guyana’s fisheries sector has three main subdivisions: the marine fishery, inland fishery and aquaculture. Marine fishing activities are geared towards exploiting shrimp resources using industrial trawling methods. The industrial fishery is based in the Demerara River, and consists of a number of trawlers which can be separated in terms of their catch profile; namely seabob trawlers and prawn trawlers. Deep-slope fishing is also employed to exploit red snapper fish. The small scale artisanal fishery is also part of the marine subsector, constituted by about 1300 vessels, and whose catch profile is largely composed of demersal fish and shrimp species, and some light exploitation of pelagic species.

The inland fishery on the other hand is dominated by subsistence fishing which tends to be influenced by other economic activities such as the crop cycles of sugar cane and rice.  Aquaculture in Guyana has two components: traditional brackish-water culture and freshwater culture. Brackish-water culture is usually achieved by opening sluices which bring tide water full of eggs, fish fry and shrimp larvae into swamps, which then grow to sellable sizes in the swamp. Freshwater ponds mainly farm atipa catfish and freshwater prawns.

Industrial fishermen have formed the Guyana Association of Trawler Owners and Seafood Processors (GATOSP) which advocates the cause for the industry and keeps its members informed regarding fisheries management issues and government regulations, as well as 13 fishermen’s co-operative societies. There is no unified organization, and about 80% of boat owners are members of a co-operative.

The Fisheries Department of the Ministry of Agriculture is the government body charged with the sustainable management and regulation of the country’s fisheries. The DOF’s authority was originally defined by the Fisheries Act of 1957, but this was later redefined in the Fisheries Act of 2002.