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1.2 Fishing seasons
Each fish species targeted by the local fishing community has a specific
season when it is most abundant. The beginning and end of species-specific
fishing seasons can differ from year to year (and often overlap among
species) as a result of annual variability in the fishes’ migration routes
and changes in oceanographic and/or climatological conditions. From
August till November the normally strong eastern trade winds weaken
for extended periods of time resulting in calm seas that allow fishermen
to target deep water snappers on the windward side of Curaçao using
monofilament or steel hand lines and sometimes electric snapper reels
In general, fishing for HMS starts at the end of October (Albert Volk, pers.
comm.). While wahoo’s are caught year-round, they are most abundant
during the last quarter of the year, which is therefore considered “the wahoo
season”. The dorado season usually also starts at the end of October.
Dorados caught in December are called “dradu di Pasku” by the fishers.
Most dorado’s are generally caught in March after which the arrival of
large, floating mats of Sargassum (Pap.: karanka) during the second half
of July and the first weeks of August, along with a change of seawater color
from dark blue to green, is considered as the end of the dorado season.
Around the floating mats of Sargassum, fishers usually only catch small
juvenile dorado’s i.e. the last dorados of the season. The fishers call this
period “dradu ta yama ayó” (En: the dorados’s are saying goodbye) and/or
arrival of the off-season “temporada di berans” (Albert Volk, pers.
a peak in catches during the month of March, similar to dorado catches.
The Curaçao Yacht Club has organized an annual international blue marlin
tournament in March since 1966. The end of July is considered the end
of the marlin season.
It is the impression of Curaçaoan fishermen that seasons and migration
patterns of HMS have significantly altered over the past two decades (Albert
Volk, pers. comm.), presumably because of climatological changes
and/or other anthropogenic processes such as damming rivers, pollution,
agricultural runoff and (over) fishing in the wider Caribbean Region.
From 2011 onward, massive blooms of floating Sargassum seaweed
have invaded the entire Caribbean Sea during the months of May-August
which could also influence the behavior and distribution of HMS (Wang
& Hu, 2017, Putman et al. 2018).
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