World Wildlife Fund

Gina DeFerrari

Hey guys, this is Gina DeFerrari, and I'll be your guest blogger for the next few days!

I am the priority leader for WWF's Mesoamerican Reef program. The Mesoamerican Reef stretches nearly 700 miles from the northern tip of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula to the Bay Islands in northern Honduras, and is part of a larger interconnected system of currents and habitats that stretch throughout the Caribbean Basin and beyond. Within the Reef area, overfishing of lobster is of particular concern in the Mesoamerican Reef as the industrial lobster fleet is centered here and on the Honduran mainland in La Ceiba.

Last summer, we joined forces with Darden Restaurants Inc. - owner of Red Lobster and Olive Garden - to work with the lobster fishing industry to test an environmentally friendly lobster trap. This trap is designed to curtail the capture of juvenile lobsters - those that are illegal to capture under Honduran law. Although the initial trap experiments were a success, the fishing industry was still concerned with their effectiveness in keeping lobsters of legal fishing size within the trap. To alleviate this concern, our team recently agreed to conduct an additional experiment to find out if the concerns were justified.

I look forward to any questions you might have for me on our work to help create a sustainable future for the lobster and those who depend on them for their livelihoods.

Posted 23 June 2008, 12.46 PM

Jane S. wrote:
Dear Gina, I'm a vegetarian, why aren't you guys trying to save the lobster from being eaten? I thought WWF saved species?

Gina's response:
You're right, saving species from extinction is what we're about. While lobster stocks are dwindling, they're not at risk of extinction. What we need to do is make sure that they're not being caught at levels their populations can't sustain. We want to keep those populations healthy, so they can function as part of the marine ecosystem and also support the livelihoods of the fishermen who depend on them.

Posted 23 June 2008, 1.08 PM

Desi M. wrote:
Hello! I was wondering how effective WWF finds these types of corporate partnerships. If they are effective, why are they effective?

Gina's response:
Working with Darden Restaurants Inc, the parent company of Red Lobster has been a boon to our efforts to get the lobster fishery in Honduras on a sustainable footing. A representative of Darden accompanied WWF to an introductory meeting with the fishing industry on Roatan Island last summer, where we broached theperiment to test an environmentally friendly lobster trap - one that would allow undersized lobsters to escape.

There were years of trust that had been built between the Darden representative and the leaders of the fishing industry, and when the Darden representative explained that Darden shared WWF's concerns about the dwindling stocks and encourage the fishing industry to participate in the experiment, that carried a lot of weight. I think it might have been what convinced the fishermen to work with us, and we wouldn't have been able to do the experiment without their cooperation.

Posted 23 June 2008, 4.22 PM

Charlotte P. wrote:
WWF do with local fisherman in the area, not just the big, industrial fisheries?

Gina's response:
We have a couple other initiatives with fishermen in the Mesoamerican Reef. On the Yucutan Coast of Mexico there are six fishing cooperatives that are managing their fisheries quite well and we have been working with them to see if they meet the criteria for certification by the Marine Stewardship Council. If they are, they'll be eligible to use the MSC seal of approval on their products to let consumers know that they're purchasing product for a sustainably managed source.

The other initiative is one that we've undertaken with fishing villages adjacent to marine parks. We've trained the fishermen in the use of SCUBA and had them undertake surveys of the coral and fish diversity and abundance in their fishing grounds. The idea is to make them partners in identifying the areas that should be set aside as nursery areas, places that will have the least imt the most positive impact on the biodiversity of the reef.

Posted 25 June 2008, 5.19 PM

Thomas R. wrote:
You talk about overfishing being a major threat in the Mesoamerican Reef. If we don't change the way we catch lobster, will lobsters become extinct soon?

Gina's response:
No, there's not an immediate risk that lobsters will become extinct. But the populations could dwindle to the point that they no longer support a fishery, and that would be very bad news for the coas on fishing for their livelihoods.

Posted 26 June 2008, 11.37 AM

Diane K. wrote:
I love seafood, especially lobster! What can I do to help prevent lobsters from being overfished? Should I stop eating them until we find a way to help the stocks rebound?

Gina's response:
I wouldn't say you should avoid eating lobster. If you're travelling in Central America though, definitely don't be tempted by offers of baby lobsters. Those are the ones that haven't even reached sexual maturity yet, and haven't had a chance to reproduce. In some places in Central America, you'll find them on the restaurant menus. A number of organizations, such as the Monterey Bay Aquarium, issues lists of which kinds of seafood to avoid - it's worth taking a look at that. And keep your eye open for the MSC logo, which tells yo the searoduct crom a weaged sou160;