A documentary featuring Antiguan fisherman Dalston Samuels’ experience in a Caribbean fisher’s exchange program will debut at the 11th International Coral Reef Symposium to be held in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, July 7-11. The symposium is hosted by the International Society of Reef Studies and is the world's major coral reef science meeting held every 4 years.

Samuels describes himself as a second generation fisherman who cares passionately about his family and preserving his way of life in Antigua. This documentary illustrates the impact the fisher’s exchange program had on Samuels and how it shaped his dreams for the future.

Texas A&M Associate Professor of Geography William Heyman was instrumental in establishing the fisher’s exchange program that Samuels describes. In May 2007, fisherman from Antigua, Barbuda, and Venezuela visited fishing cooperatives, lobster ranches, and marine reserves in Belize and Mexico and learned about the benefits of these initiatives. Exchange participants talked with local fishermen and saw how they supplement their income by working as ecotourism and fly fishing guides, marine guards, and in other trades.

The fisher’s exchange programs evolved during 10 years of work Heyman did in southern Belize, helping the people there find solutions to the problem of dwindling fish stocks that threatened their work and economy. He helped them create marine reserves to offer training in alternative livelihoods (e.g. marine ecotourism). By addressing illegal fishing and reducing extractive dependence on fisheries resources, local communities have seen increasing fish stocks within the reserves and an increasing tourism-based economy.

The fisher’s exchange described in A Fisher’s Journey emerged from Heyman expanding collaborations in Belize to other areas of the Caribbean. Heyman was jointly funded with Juan M. Posada, Universidad Simón Bolívar in Caracas, Venezuela, to support this exchange. Well-managed marine reserves in Belize and Mexico served as a “living classroom” for fishers from Venezuela, Antigua, Barbuda and other areas wishing to combat dwindling fish resources with marine ecotourism and community-based marine reserve management.

“This video is a powerful representation of the impact exchange programs like this can have,” Heyman said. “It was so exciting to see these fishermen with the fishermen from Belize. They bonded immediately and were able to see firsthand what reef fish conservation can do for them in their own country. Antigua and Barbuda are on track to become the next great success, and we hope that by widely disseminating this video, we can encourage other areas dealing with these issues to take a similar approach.”

A Fisher’s Journey was written, filmed and produced by Corinne McAfee of Daring or Nothing Productions with support from the Caribbean Environmental Programme, a division of the United Nations Environmental Programme, which coordinates the Fisher’s Exchange Program. The documentary will be shown in the Reef Symposium’s Education Center that features exhibits, displays, and video productions of educational research and information on coral reefs. For more information visit http://www.nova.edu/ncri/11icrs/education.html .

A Fisher’s Journey is also available for download on Texas A&M University’s iTunesU site. Visit http://itunes.tamu.edu/ , select the topic “Geosciences” and then “Department of Geography.”