Bringing new funding and notoriety to The Bahamas from the National Geographic Society, the Perry Institute for Marine Science (PIMS) and the Cape Eleuthera Institute (CEI) at The Island School hope to investigate COVID-19’s effects on local subsistence fishing habits.
Prominent PIMS scientist Dr. Karlisa Callwood and her team won one of only 11 awards among the 1,200 competitors considered by National Geographic as part of their global investigation into understanding challenges and changes to the natural world created by COVID-19.
Following two years marked by cascading climate and coral catastrophes, social instability, and harsh economic times, Bahamians of all stripes have turned more fully to the sea for food security. This, for some families, could be a silver bullet to make it through the day to day grind and keep food on the table. But in light of recurrent hurricanes and the ongoing pandemic, it is important that community use of near-shore fisheries is studied to ensure sustainability.
The National Geographic-PIMS-CEI project’s ultimate goal is to inform local disaster resilience planning, economic development, and responsible fisheries management by providing useful information to both the public and to policymakers…