Apparent rapid fisheries escalation at a remote Caribbean island

Abstract

Navassa Island is a small uninhabited island, approximately 60 km west of the south-west tip of Haiti (18°24′N, 75°00′W). Haiti laid claim to the island in 1804, however the USA claimed it under the Guano Act of 1856 and recently placed it under jurisdiction of the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). Remoteness from USFWS administration in Puerto Rico and disputed sovereignty by Haiti make enforcement of management impractical. Artisanal fishers from Haiti have frequented Navassa over the past several decades. Given the lack of current land-based development and limited transient land-based activity (for example salting fish and gear construction), Navassa provides a case study where fishing is largely isolated as the dominant human impact on coastal resources.