The Fisheries Division of the Ministry of Agriculture is contradicting the claims of fishermen who say that juvenile dolphins are a different species of the fish.
For the past few years, fisheries officials have been warning fishermen about the ecological dangers of catching sexually immature dolphins but their pleas have fallen on deaf ears. Some of the fishermen have been capitalising on the influx of Sargassum seaweed in the island’s waters that attract the small fish.
Fisheries biologist Christopher Parker in a New Year’s warning to the fisherfolks informed them that their days of landing undergrown dolphins were numbered.
Speaking at the division’s corporate office in The City, Parker said that though the presence of Sargassum seaweed was dwindling compared to the substantial blankets spotted in the past, the quantity of small six-to seven-pound dolphins in the market was still above the norm. He said that fishermen were convincing themselves and the public that small dolphins were a different species. (SB)
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