Dr. Tannecia Stephenson

The Prioritisation of research and development, together with tailored capacity building and awareness raising are said to be vital components of a needed overall framework to realise a resilient blue economy, especially in the face of a changing climate.

These are included in a raft of recommendations by respected Caribbean scientists who recently penned a chapter in the book titled The Caribbean Blue Economy, which was edited by Peter Clegg, Robin Mahon, Patrick McConney and Hazel A. Oxenford. It was published in October.

“A resilient blue economy across spatial and time scales should form part of an overarching, cohesive sustainable development framework in the region, even for physical, human, technical, financial and social systems indirectly associated with marine resources,” writes Jamaican researchers Dr Mona Webber and Dr Michael Taylor, who are both professors at The University of the West Indies, Dr Tannecia Stephenson and Felicia Whyte in their chapter of the book.

They also list a range of response measures to advance the blue economy, which is comprised, according to the 2017 World Bank Report on the subject, of “established traditional ocean industries such as fisheries, tourism, and maritime transport, but also new and emerging activities, such as offshore renewable energy, aquaculture, seabed extractive activities, and marine biotechnology and bioprospecting”.

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