Towards sustainable
management of the Saba Bank
A report for the Department of Public Health and Environment
(VOMIL), Netherlands Antilles
Erik H. Meesters, Hugo Nijkamp, Liesbeth Bijvoet
KNAP Project 96-3
Preface
The Saba Bank has been known as a large,
totally submerged but shallow, marine area off the island of Saba. The
bank is being used as an important fish resource by fishermen from Saba
and some other islands in the region. It also lies in an area with heavy
ship traffic. Apart from its apparent economic importance as a natural
resource, there were indications that the Saba Bank would lodge valuable
nature, including coral reefs.
Frequent reports of decreasing stocks,
destructive fishing activities of foreign fishing boats, anchoring, and
tank-cleaning, raised concerns about the environmental state of the bank
within the Department of Public Health and Environment of the Netherlands
Antilles (VOMIL). This resulted in the formulation of a project proposal
that was submitted to the KNAP fund and culminated in this report.
The report intends to shed light on
the values of the natural resources of the Saba Bank, the economic importance
of the bank and the existing legal and institutional frameworks for man-agement.
The main question was whether the importance and present state of the Saba
Bank requires regulation.
The project was financed by the KNAP
fund that was created by the Department of Public Health and Environment
of the Netherlands Antilles (VOMIL), the Dutch Department of Antillean
and Aruban Affairs (KABNA), the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF-the Netherlands),
and the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature Management and Fisheries of the
Neth-erlands (LNV) to stimulate small scale initiatives contributing to
the management of nature in the Netherlands Antilles.
Executive
summary
This report aims to contribute to the
conservation and wise use of the Saba Bank. We present collected biological,,
geographical, and socioeconomic data related to the Saba Bank and we analyze
these data to identify deficiencies in the information and (potential)
conflicts of interest. The report also reviews the existing international
and national legislation and suggests a framework that could be used in
order to implement a management plan for sustainable use of the natural
resources of the Saba Bank.
Geographical description (Chap. 2.1).
The Saba Bank is an area of enormous dimensions (65 by 40 km, maximum length
and width, Figure 1). Its total surface area is about 2200 km2 (measured
from 8-200 m depth). The largest part of the Saba Bank is between 20 and
50 in depth, but a substantial east-ern part of the bank (app. 225 km2)
is between 10 and 20 m depth and contains extensive coral reefs.
Natural resources (Chap. 2.3). The
Saba Bank constitutes the largest actively growing atoll in the Caribbean
and possibly the third largest atoll in the world (Figure 3). Along large
parts of the edge of the Saba Bank, vast coral reefs can be found. From
field observations it appears that these reefs are healthy and support
a rich biological community which is probably responsible for the high
production of regionally important commercial species such as snapper,
lobster and conch. Reefal areas are esti-mated to measure around 150 km2,
while the actively growing reef fronts occupy an area between 20 and 40
km2. For comparison, the total surface area of the reefs off Curaçao
lies between 11 and 22 km2.
The Saba Bank is important for a number
of reasons. It forms a regionally unique ecosystem that is relatively pristine,
characterized by high biological diversity and productivity. Seasonally,
large num-bers of Queen Triggerfish (Balistes vetula) and Squirrelfish
(Holocentrus ascencionis) are caught on the bank. These probably migrate
to the bank from other areas in the region to reproduce. Likely, the Saba
Bank is a source of fish and coral larvae, supporting the coral reefs of
islands in the region. These reefs are often threatened by human activities
due to their vicinity to land.
Users, impacts and threats (Chap. 2.4).
The primary users of the Saba Bank are the fishermen from Saba, who have
been fishing there since the previous century. Fishermen from neighboring
Caribbean islands also fish on the Saba Bank. Intensive fishing methods
may have reduced the queen conch al-ready severely in many places, though
no data are available. Possibly the bank is overfished for certain commercially
used species but this needs to be assessed through the collection of data.
The waters over the bank are also used for passage by oil tankers, freighters,
cruise ships, yachts, recreational fishermen, drug boats, and the Royal
Dutch Navy. Some tankers anchor on the bank while waiting for permission
to enter St. Eustatius' harbour. Part of the Saba Bank has been explored
for oil, but these explorations have, so far, remained unsuccessful.
A number of activities was distinguished
as having (potentially) severe effects on the Saba Bank and its resources.
Most prominent were overfishing and anchoring. Other possibly serious threats
to the bank's natural resources include the use of dispersants after oil
spills, ship grounding and collisions.
Economic aspects (Chap. 2.5). Presently,
economic benefits are only derived from fisheries. Income for Saban fishermen
is estimated to lie around NAF 850,000 per year. Catch by others is unknown
and the total catch from the Saba Bank may already be above its carrying
capacity. Crude estimates indi-cate that the maximum sustainable catch
may be worth many times the Saban share. No data for the Saba Bank support
this estimate, indicating the need for more information. Additional benefits
may be generated through stimulating diving and sport-fishing on the Saba
Bank.
Present legislation (Chap. 3). The
legal framework that has been developed through international law provides
a solid foundation for national law. Limited jurisdiction of the Netherlands
Antilles stretches 200 nautical miles from the coast of each island due
to the creation of an exclusive fishery zone. This zone completely encloses
the Saba Bank, offering the Netherlands Antilles ample opportunity to regu-late
harvesting of the Saba Bank's natural resources. The installation of an
Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) would increase the opportunities for management
even further.
Presently, the Netherlands Antilles
are faced with two problems regarding legislation. Firstly, the problem
of enforcing existing (and new) national and island laws. Secondly, the
fact that existing leg-islation is often outdated. Enforcement is currently
improved through the installation of a Coast Guard. New regulations, such
as the drafts National Law Nature Conservation and Protection (Landsverordening
Grondslagen Natuurbeheer en -bescherming), National Law on Environmental
Management (Landsverordening Grondslagen milieubeheer, and National Law
Maritime Management (Landsveror-dening Maritiem Beheer), are in the process
of becoming legislation. Combined with an effective coast guard, these
laws should enable the Netherlands Antilles to manage the sustainable use
of the natural resources of the Saba Bank.
The need for management (Chap. 4).
The main gaps in knowledge include information on reef and species distributions,
data on major ecological processes, ship anchoring and traversing frequency,
use of the bank by other islands and most importantly stock and catch data
of commercially used species.
A number of reasons motivate active
management of the Saba Bank:
-
It is an important and unique ecosystem
in relatively pristine condition;
-
It is of considerable economic and social
importance;
-
It is currently exploited without any
control;
-
It lies within a busy shipping area;
-
It has potential for increase in economic
importance.
Different options are discussed in which
steps are proposed given the different observations. A laissez faire attitude
is of course a realistic option, but is guaranteed to cause problems, especially
with re-spect to overfishing of the existing stocks. Similar comments apply
to shipping, especially anchoring and pollution.
Therefore, preventive and regulating
actions are required. One could choose between an ad hoc ap-proach to tackle
single problems or opportunities at a time, or a more integrated approach
of all thresholds, risks and opportunities leading to the sustainable use
of the Saba Bank. The latter is pro-posed, because it better addresses
the problems inherent to a multi-use area.
An integrated approach first identifies
thresholds and opportunities and sets priorities among necessary (parallel)
actions which includes the attraction of necessary funding, information
campaigns, research, capacity building, participation programmes etc. The
integrated approach may be expected to have continuity of (proportionate)
action, funding and results. Section 4.3.2 further elaborates the recom-mended
option of an integrated approach, which has been termed a masterplan.
Contents
Preface
ii
Acknowledgements iii
Executive summary iv
Samenvatting
vi
Contents
viii
Tables
ix
Figures
ix
1 Introduction 1
2 What is the Saba Bank and why is
it important 3
2.1 Geographical data 3
2.2 Geological data 3
2.3 Natural resources 4
2.3.1 Coral reefs 4
2.3.2 Fish 6
2.3.3 Conch 7
2.3.4 Lobster 7
2.3.5 Mammals and turtles 7
2.3.6 Oil and gas 7
2.3.7 Minerals 8
2.3.8 Pharmaceuticals 8
2.4 Users, impacts and threats 8
2.4.1 Fisheries 8
2.4.2 Ship traffic, related activities
and risks 12
2.4.3 Oil explorations 13
2.4.4 Collecting 13
2.4.5 Recreational Diving 14
2.5 Economic aspects 14
2.5.1 Fisheries 14
2.5.2 Oil explorations 15
2.5.3 Ship traffic 15
2.5.4 Future benefits 15
3 Present Legislation 16
3.1 Introduction 16
3.2 Jurisdiction 17
3.3 Jurisdiction and the Saba Bank
17
3.4 Legal instruments 17
3.5 Fishing activities 19
3.6 Navigation 19
3.6.1 Disturbance 19
3.6.2 Pollution and the threat of
casualties 21
3.7 Land-based pollution 21
3.8 Ecological values 21
3.9 Enforcement 22
4 The need for management: an assessment
24
4.1 Assessment of gaps in
knowledge and recommendations for further research 24
4.2 Problem analysis and further recommendations
25
4.3 How to continue from here? 26
4.3.1 Recommended actions
towards the sustainable use of the Saba Bank 26
4.3.2 Development of a master plan
in 2 phases 27
4.4 The development of a master plan 29
5 References 32
6 Appendices 33
Appendix 1. Locations of reconnaissance
dives made in 1996 33
Appendix 2. Coral and fish species
found on the Saba Bank 34
7 Annex 1. Legal instruments 36
7.1 International cooperation
36
7.1.1 The United Nations 36
7.1.2 The International Maritime Organization
(IMO) 39
7.2 National law 40
Tables
Table 1. Summary of users,
activities, impacts and threats of the Saba Bank 9
Table 2. Catch estimates (t per year)
for fish and lobster and their source. 11
Table 3. Estimated income from Saba
Bank for Saban fishermen 14
Table 4. Recommended actions . 28
Figures
Figure 1. Map of the Saba Bank 2
Figure 2. Main currents in the Atlantic
. 3
Figure 3. The coral reefs of the Saba
Bank 5
Figure 4. Contours of generic diversity
6
Figure 5. The use of the Saba Bank
by Saban fishermen. 10
Figure 6. Maritime zones in the Law
of the Sea 16
Figure 7. Maritime zones around Saba,
St. Maarten and St. Eustatius 18
Figure 8. Equidistance lines in the
northern CaribbeaN 20
Figure 9. Outline of masterplan for
the Saba Bank 29
Figure 10. Strategic environmental
analysis for the construction of a masterplan 31 |