$47 mil. in crawfish landed last year
NASSAU, BAHAMAS- More than $57 million worth of fisheries products were caught in Bahamian waters and landed last year, according to data released by the Ministry of Agriculture and Marine Resources.
A total of 6,676,450 pounds of fisheries products, the bulk of which was made up of crawfish and queen conch, was caught and landed last year.
The data shows that 4,272,708 pounds of crawfish ($47 million) was hauled last year.
Of that figure, $17.2 million worth of crawfish tails were caught in New Providence, while another $29.74 million was hauled from the Family Islands, the data shows.
A separate “Fishery Product/Resource Export” report shows that 4,345,260 crawfish was exported from The Bahamas in 2018.
The value of the exported product was $67.94 million.
The export report does not differentiate between crawfish tails and crawfish whole.
No figure was recorded for exports of “crawfish whole frozen”.
The crawfish season is set to open tomorrow.
The season runs from August 1 to March 31.
The total landings data shows that another 1,183,527 pounds of conch worth a reported $5.19 million was landed.
A closer look at the data shows that 447,095 pounds of conch was pulled from waters in New Providence, while 736,432 pounds of conch was fishes from the Family Islands — $2.04 million compared to $3.15 million.
As it relates to exports, $4.48 million worth of conch meat or 639,840 pounds was exported last year.
Over 41 fisheries products were listed in the landings report.
Over $1.3 million worth of lane snapper; $1.13 million worth of stone crab; $850,423 worth of Nassau Grouper; $351,368 worth of silk snapper and $239,284 worth of hogfish was caught from waters across The Bahamas in 2018.
Overall, fisheries products landed from New Providence produced $22.16 million.
In the Family Islands, $34.95 worth of fisheries products was landed.
The report also showed that a total of nearly 160,000 pounds of sponge was landed last year.
The value of the sponge catches for 2018 was $120,870.
The grass sponge made the overwhelming majority of the catch.
