We’re pleased to announce that the Oracabessa Foundation has been awarded a US$50,000 grant from United Nations Development Programme “Global Environment Facility”. The grant will be used to strengthen the Oracabessa Bay Fish Sanctuary and also plant 2,000 pieces of coral!

It’s been a LONG time coming, but the Oracabessa Bay Fish Sanctuary has finally managed to receive a duty waiver on the cable we purchased with grant monies from the Global Environment Facility. That means within a couple weeks we’ll have demarcation buoys in the water!

Big day for the Oracabessa Bay Sanctuary today! Wardens are officially patrolling the area as of 6am this morning. 5 local fishermen - and one fisherwoman - taking up the task of enforcing the no fishing zone (and helping to secure the long term sustainability of their livelihoods). Mainly doing awareness rather than enforcement as the marker buoys aren't up yet, but its a great start!

Over the weekend we completed two days of workshops designed to thrash out the framework for the Oracabessa Fish Sanctuary’s management plan. We got through all the basics (vision, mission, goals, etc) and will now be hard at work figuring out how to make all that happen!

The Oracabessa Bay Fish Sanctuary project is chugging along. We’ve finished the data collection phase of our management plan process and are now ready to put the actual plan together. We’ve got workshops scheduled for September 13, 25 and 27. Wish us luck!

Its official! As of May 18, 2010 the Oracabessa Fish Sanctuary has been recognized as a legal no-fishing zone by the Jamaican government. It has been a long road - and there is still much work to be done to make the sanctuary fully operational - but this is a HUGE milestone in our jouney!

Workshops, workshops, workshops! We’re busy putting together the management plan for the Oracabessa Fish Sanctuary and doing ‘nuff workshops in order to make sure it is an inclusive process!