Caribbean Freshwater Fisheries Research: an Opportunity to Enhance Diversity

The Caribbean region is widely known for its marine sport and commercial fisheries, but the freshwater habitats of the islands also support a substantial number of fishes, many of which provide recreational and subsistence fishery values.  In Puerto Rico, freshwater fish resources have received relatively little attention by fisheries scientists, despite their economical and cultural values.  Likewise, the Puerto Rican human population is relatively underrepresented in state and federal fisheries agencies of the United States.  Thus, we suggest that cooperative research and educational activities to better understand the ecology and management of the freshwater fisheries resources of Puerto Rico also present an opportunity for cultural and human resource exchanges.  In efforts to mitigate both of these imbalances, we conducted research on the freshwater stream fish communities and their habitats island-wide in Puerto Rico.  Objectives include the study of fish sampling efficiency, population dynamics, biotic indices, urban impacts, contaminant analyses, amphidromy in native fishes, dynamics of migration barriers, and models to explain the distribution and abundance of stream fishes with environmental parameters at multiple scales.  In addition to forming the scientific basis for fisheries and ecosystem management and informing policy decisions, research and outreach activities formed and facilitated relationships among research and management biologists from the Caribbean and mainland U.S.  An additional benefit of the initiative is the education of undergraduate and graduate students with diverse experiences that will become future natural resource professionals.  The initiative may also serve to identify biologist positions that may be created, as resources allow, to assume critical roles and management functions to enhance stream fish resources, as well as augment cultural diversity in management agencies.  Other opportunities available to enhance scientific and cultural exchanges include educational and outreach workshops, formal training grants, and various opportunities for students and professionals to experience diversity in science and culture.  We conclude that the value of conducting scientific research in the Caribbean goes beyond the achieved gains in ecological understanding and informing management by also, and just as importantly, enhancing diversity in cultural awareness and experiences for participating communities.