exemptions. They tend to be unaccounted for in official statistics, which distorts the true contribution of the commercial fishing sector to the local economy. Table 7: Key statistics of the census of commercial fishermen in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Summary of Fishing Statistics St. Croix Number of fishermen Licensed commercial fishermen Estimated crew size Total number of fishermen and crew Ethnic Groups (%) Hispanic Black Black Hispanic French descent Black French White Engagement (%) Full-time (>36 hrs/week) Part-time Occasional Income Dependence (%) > 50% from fishing ≤ 50% from fishing Time Spent on Fishing Activities (%) < 20 hrs. per week < 36 hrs per week >36 hrs per week Fishing practices Average number of weekly trips (trips/week) Average trip duration (hrs/trip) Average number of hours spent fishing (hrs/week) Average annual landings (2003 data) – lbs/year) Average weekly landings (lbs/week) Average number of hours spent selling fish (hrs/week)
St. Thomas & St. John
223 312 535
160 224 384
48.4 41.6 1.8 0 0 7.7
3.5 32.5 0 49.1 6.1 8.8
61.0 31.5 7.5
77.3 19.1 2.7
54 46
75 25
30.5 23.3 46.2
35 32.5 32.5
3.3 6.7 22.11 4,615 88.75 6.6
2.6 8.3 21.58 5,051 97.13 8.1
Sources: Kojis, 2004; NMFS 2007a
However, the Kojis (2004) report did attempt to recognize helpers’ presence and contribution by asking fishermen to distinguish between “helpers” and “other commercial fishers” that they worked with. As a result, 188 Cruzan fishers reported fishing at least with one “helper” (the mean number of helpers was
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