”A lot of poor fishermen depend on grouper,” a Spanish Wells fisherman told a Tribune reporter Wednesday. “They need to target certain areas at certain times to protect areas where the fish spawn – not cramping everybody’s ability to make money off grouper for a whole month.” This is a blow to fishermen, because, as this fisherman says, “a lot of poor fishermen depend on grouper.” This is the reason for conservation.
It is important that these waters teem with grouper so that when future generations of poor Bahamians cast their line, there will be grouper to pull in.
One fisheries wholesaler, who believed government was taking a step in the right direction, said his business builds up its inventory during the months of November and December. However, because of rough weather, this fishing season has been a disaster for fishermen. He believed there were only three or four good fishing days this month, and possibly six days in November. Because of that, coupled with January as a closed season, supplies will be hard hit.
However, said the wholesaler, judging from the supplies – he bought more grouper last year than previously – there was no sign of a reduction in the size of the fish. Because of this he believes the stocks are still healthy. “This doesn’t mean,” he said, “that government shouldn’t put in corrective measures; it’s a good move and it will sustain the stocks.” If there is any shortage, grouper will be imported from Miami -as is already being done by some wholesalers.
However, both fishermen and wholesalers agreed that conservation plans will be defeated if more is not done to protect the country’s fishing grounds from poachers.
Special protection is needed in the Old Bahama Channel – that vast, exposed body of water extending from the south, passing near Cuba, taking in Cay Lobos and Ragged Island, and extending across to the Great Bahama Bank – where the best lobster and fishing grounds are located. It is a difficult area to police, but some way has to be found to stop poachers moving up the channel from the Inagua area and into the nation’s fishing grounds. This is the sea route taken, not only by poachers – mainly Dominican – but also by Haitian immigrants, and drug smugglers.
During the House debate on the 15 Korean fishing boats, Long Island MP Larry Cartwright put in a plea for fishermen.
Mr Cartwright said that because a cell (phone) site had not been located in Ragged Island, as he had asked to be done, the fishermen were out on the banks without contact.
“There are hundreds of them out there each year on the banks,” he said, “cut off from their families and the wider world, sometimes for two weeks at a time, and although many of them have cell phones they are still unable to connect with their families or the rest of the world.” He urged the Minister responsible to “make an effort to put in place some sort of device for these persons not just from Ragged Island or Long Island, but fishermen from all over the Bahamas.”
He said Andros fishermen also congregate out on the banks and they can only communicate among themselves by VHF radio.
“Sometimes matters arise that they would like to and need to contact New Providence and it would mean having to run into Ragged Island to find that the circuits are down,” said Mr Cartwright.
He also complained about Bahamian fisheries being overtaken by foreign fishermen, second home owners and foreigners who come here, get work and compressor permits and fish side by side with Bahamians.
“Second home owners,” Mr Cartwright complained, “come to our country, build homes in the Family Islands, make use of duty exemptions, build a second home and then they use the second home as a sports fishing lodge. They use their privately owned boats and they themselves are the bone fishing guides. Something must be done.
“There are foreigners,” he continued, “who fish illegally from foreign owned vessels with a flotilla of dingies out on the banks and they are not apprehended by the law enforcement agencies and this continues year in and year out. The Bahamian fishermen need to contact someone to let them know, but it is not possible because they do not have the communication devices – and by the time they get to Ragged Island to contact someone in Nassau, these guys have their boat load of fish and they are gone – fish, conch, crawfish, stone crab and whatever else they can find to take along with them.”
Finally, he said, there are those foreigners who come here, get a work permit and a compressor permit, get on their Bahamian fishing boat “and go out there and fish side by side with other Bahamians, making money from Bahamian fish.”
As Mr Cartwright says, Bahamian fishermen need help
Editorial, The Tribune
