Bill and the Fishing Cooperative
by Catherine LaineAugust 26th, 2006
I almost forgot. Bill Dolan arrived yesterday. A cheer rang out from the upstairs when folks saw his taxi. Bill has graciously carried many needed extra supplies (e.g. contact lens solution, tripod, extra MIT T-shirts for the participants, a massive Creyole-English dictionary, and more). I think he managed to get from the DR to PAP by bus, then flew here.
He’s a fascinating guy. For years, he worked in real estate. He got into philanthropy/development work after helping a family sell off several million dollars worth of property and set up a foundation with the proceeds. Along the way, he met Gerthy and long story short, he agreed to help spearhead a project with a fishing cooperative based in Petit-Anse.
His objective in the project is to create a sustainable long-term income stream for the fisherman that is environmentally sound and responsible. The charity that he’s working with, In Kind, is looking for the optimal way they can help the co-op that will have the longest lasting/biggest impact on their economic situation. It’s no easy task to maximize the benefits that one’s help provides while minimizing all negative side effects. There are just so many choices. The fisherman want new fiberglass boats and perhaps a truck to make it easier to get their catch to market. On the other hand, maybe they need to get out of the fishing business altogether and start making new boats for the other fisherman?
Issue 1: The small-scale fishing industry in Haiti is in trouble. The waters closest to the shore are already extremely over-fished. As is happening all over the world, the catch is just getting smaller and smaller. Unlike other locales, where fisherman end up buying larger and larger boats to dredge up the contents of the sea, these guys simply do not have the capital to do that. Good for the environment, bad for them. So this leads to the question of whether getting them a bigger boat is the best thing for a) their long-term economic prospects or b) the environment. Is it ethical? But then again, there is also the question whether the cash they raise on the short-run will put them in a better position to shift to another industry later. The answer really isn’t obvious.
Issue 2: The co-op is really keen on an option that will have a short turnaround time for bringing in revenue. They want to be able to start selling their products as soon as possible.
There are, of course, other issues but we’ll leave them off for now.
I did a bit of translating for Bill in discussions with Ti Dann (the main captain and director of the coop). He struck me as a soft-spoken man with a sailor’s face and a kind smile underneath his beard. I regret to say that I don’t remember the name of the other man we were talking to. I don’t know how translators do it, letting words flow through you like an oracle, without letting your own biases and impressions shine through. It’s tough.
Here is the info I got. The boats typically used by local fisherman are only 10-12 ft. They were saying that they can get out 3-4 km which seems like a massive distance for such a small vessel. There are about 3-4 full-on fisherman, with experience on larger boats, in the co-op and about 55 others who have varying levels of experience who just want good honest work.
There aren’t that many boats in the coop currently. There were only two engines; one of which has been broken for several months. Their engines use gas, though they would prefer diesel engines. Diesel is cheaper and the engines are better as far as they are concerned. Both fuel types are available. The current fishing stocks nearest to the shore simply don’t offer enough of a yield for the fisherman to make a reasonable wage. There’s a sense amongst the members of the co-op that the waters 10-15 km offshore are plentiful with fish, silvery and large. It’s unclear whether this is in fact the case or wishful thinking. If it is true, they don’t know how healthy the fish stocks are right now and for how long they’ll stay that way. A first step may be to figure that out.
Yeah, they’re very much interested in getting a bigger boat.
