The Anguilla National Trust has embarked on a new initiative to promote lobster breeding in the island’s waters. This is being accomplished through the provision of what is called, in the Spanish Language, ‘Casitais”.
Ms. Farah Mukida, Executive Director of the National Trust, who is behind the project, explainED the initiative: “The lobster caisitais are essentially artificially-designed habitats for marine life. We constructed them using a layer design. We have layers of concrete that are supported by conch shells and between them are open spaces. Those spaces provide protective habitats for the marine life – whether it is fish, shrimps, lobsters or anything else that might use the casitais.”
Ms. Mukida continued: “The casitais that the fisher folk help us to build will be set close to Prickly Pear East and others that were built a few months ago will be put down along the snorkel trail in Little Bay.
“It is really to create additional habitats for marine life, especially around Prickly Pear where we found that the reef is in quite a degraded state. So this will just add extra space and protection for smaller fish and other marine life.”
The Executive Director of the National Trust reported that 102 casitais were built and all of them will be placed in the sea early in January 2020. She added that the newly-built contraptions would be allowed to set for thirty days in order for the weighty concrete portions to cure.
