Etude des fonds de pêche du littoral atlantique martiniquais : ressources, exploitation, prospectives

The Atlantic coast of Martinique shows the typical characteristics of the tropical regions with a coral facies, and especially: a) a wide variety of sedentary animal species, especially coral fishes, of smaller sizes and numbers, thus forming smaller populations than those living under other latitudes ; b) the presence, between the shore and the reef barrier, of a shallow strip of soft bottoms, without any natural shelter, well protected, but with difficult access for off-shore species, and with a poor fauna. It is the major explanation for the weakness of the performances on this restricted continental shelf where, in addition, the fishing effort keeps growing. The complex relief of the reef makes the use of the trawl nets impossible and very difficult that of filtering nets, like bottom gillnets, which proved difficult to handle on the reef areas, as observed through this campaign. For these reasons, the Atlantic coast of Martinique is bound to an artisanal exploitation, whose expansion is very limited by the natural ecologic conditions. [...]