Shark artisanal fisheries in Tobago

I set off to Tobago to study once again how artisanal fisheries are affecting local shark populations and the humans that depend on them. Trinidad and Tobago provides an interesting study site in the Caribbean due to the cultural relationship that exists with sharks and shark meat. Trinidad, more than Tobago, is known for shark consumption and one of their main dishes is “bake and shark”, a classic street food that consist of a fried flatbread (the “bake”) that is filled with pieces of shark meat and a variety of condiments and sauces. Tobago, on the other hand, is not quite as well known for shark consumption, yet shark meat is still considered delicious and there seems to be an increasing demand for it.

"Bake and Shark" as they call it in Trinidad, or "Shark and Bake" in Tobago, is made up of fried shark with vegetables. Pic from Google.

The restaurant right across from the Tobago airport had their famous "Shark and Bake" as a breakfast option. Pic by Camila.

In collaboration with Lauren Ali from the University of the West Indies, Global FinPrint and Weldon from ERIC (Environmental Research Institute Charlotteville), we set off to interview as many artisanal fishermen on the island as possible to ask them about their fishing practices, what shark species they catch, sell and consume, and how their livelihoods are dependent on shark catches. It did not take long for us to witness shark fishing. In fact, during our very first morning in Tobago an artisanal fisherman pulled up right in front of our hotel with about 20 sharpnose sharks and one scalloped hammerhead. We went out to the pier to talk to him, try to ID the sharks, and witness him clean and process the meat for sale. There were two things that immediately stood out to me as being different from my other field sites in the Caribbean. First was the amount of sharks this single individual had been able to catch in one night. In my other field sites (Florida Keys, Colombia, Guadeloupe and Martinique) I had seen fishermen bring in about two or three sharks at the most, never as many as twenty. I was very surprised at the apparent abundance of sharks in Tobago. Second was how open, honest and inviting the fisherman was when we asked about his experience. In no way was this fisherman trying to hide his catch or was unnerved by our obvious curiosity and questions. In my past experiences, fishers in other countries are very suspicious of people asking questions about their shark catches, and are often very wary at first. This was definitely not the case in Tobago, perhaps due to the perceived abundance of sharks and common demand for their meat. Fishermen are very open about their experiences and he had no problems with us taking pictures of his catch, watching how he cleaned them, and answering our questions.

One fisher brough in about 20 sharpnose sharks all by himself in one evening. Pic by Camila.

Lauren Ali was able to ID this shark as a scalloped hammerhead Sphyrna lewini before the head was cut off. Pic by Camila.

Some of the female sharpnose sharks were pregnant with pups like this one. Pic by Camila.

Young kids in Tobago love learning how to catch sharks. Pic by Camila.

This experience with us waiting and watching for fishers to bring in their shark catches, and then being able to interview them with no problems as they cleaned and sold their fish became a regular occurrence. A few days later, we saw a fisher bring in a relatively large Caribbean reef shark at the beach to clean and sell. Immediately, a crowd of about ten other fishers surrounded the shark as they too enjoyed watching the fisherman who caught it cut up and clean the shark, and a few even joined in to help. Lauren, Weldon and I were able to watch the entire process without anyone being upset about our presence or questions. We even saw the fisher cut the fins off the shark and put them in a bag to save and send to Trinidad later for export. Although finning is illegal (the process of cutting the fins of a shark, throwing the rest of the shark body back into the water, and bringing back only the fins), buying or selling fins is not illegal if the rest of the shark is brought back to land and sold. Even though shark meat is a best seller in Trinidad and Tobago and very common in their dishes, shark fins are still being collected and stored until they have accumulated large enough quantities to export.

Fishers bring in a caribbean reef shark Carcharhinus perezii. Pic by Camila.

Other fishers crowd around as the shark is cut up and cleaned and stored to eat and sell. Pic by Camila.

After interviewing 200 fishers in about 15 different landing sites around the island, Camila returned to Miami to transcribe and analyze the data. This data will be used to learn more about the status of shark and ray populations in Tobago and the extent to which the local human populations depend on these fisheries. We will be using this to compare it to our data obtained by BRUVS from Global FinPrint, where nine different species of sharks have already been captured on camera!

A juvenile tiger shark Galeocerdo cuvier is caught on one of Global FinPrint's BRUVs in Tobago. Pic by ERIC.