Earthcare founder Gail Woon said the Bahamas has already exceeded its Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) for groupers, conch and crawfish. She says bringing in a mega fleet is absolutely “crazy” and would wipe out the country’s fisheries resources.
Ms Woon was shocked and very disturbed to learn of the arrival of Netsiwill’s 94-ft processing ship at Grand Bahama last Thursday. “Earthcare is totally opposed to factory fishing vessels, whether Bahamians are working them or not, because the methods that the Koreans are bringing in are not sustainable for the waters of the Bahamas,” she said.
Netsiwill Holding Limited, the company embroiled in the Korean boats controversy in Andros, brought the mother ship in to Freeport with the expectations of launching a fishing operation off West End. The vessel was docked at Bradford Marine for repairs to the hull, which was damaged during off-loading on shipping to Grand Bahama aboard the Da Hua.
The Tribune has learned the ship left Bradford’s port on Queen’s Highway sometime Saturday morning after repairs had been completed. Although government has ordered the return of the 15 Korean boats, Earlin Williams, CEO and principal owner of Netsiwill, is determined to regroup and establish fishing communities in North Andros, Acklins and Crooked Island.
Ms Woon believes the proposed fishing venture would deplete the fisheries resources and the fishing methods proposed would destroy the fragile marine environment.
“This is not a good time to bring in a fishing factory fleet, and I have many concerns about the methods they are proposing to use which are very destructive to marine life in the Bahamas,” she said.
Ms Woon, and ReEarth president Sam Duncombe, led a major protest in the Bahamas in the 1990s against longline fishing in the Bahamas. After much public protest, the FNM government enacted legislation banning longline fishing, sending The Kostakis I packing.
She is also opposed to the use of sodium cyanide and fish traps. The Koreans, she claimed, have depleted its fish resources using both methods. According to Ms Woon, sodium cyanide fishing is highly destructive much like dynamite fishing. She said it is not used in any part of the Caribbean fisheries areas.
“Any organism that comes in contact with it dies. So, when you use that on a coral reef you may as well say you’re creating a (underwater) desert.
“And as far as fish traps, we have been on the record in the past years as not being happy with fish traps. And if they are going to be using them we are not endorsing that either,” she said.
Ms Woon said local Bahamian fishermen alone are depleting the country’s fisheries. Fishermen are now having trouble finding legal size groupers to catch, she said.
“Three pounds is the legal size for groupers here in the Bahamas. And the Asian market will eat anything the size of your finger. So they don’t care about legal sizes,” she explained.
Ms Woon said conch are been harvested before they are allowed to reproduce, and crawfish are starting to show signs of being fished past the limit. She reported that about 85 to 95 per cent of the conch harvested in the Bahamas are juvenile conch.
“Sustainable fishing means you fish the amount the population can stand, but you leave enough to reproduce afterwards so you have fish the next year and the year after that,” she said.
“But with the method that they’re proposing, it would be like using a Hoover vacuum on the ocean, where all goes at once and don’t come back. And maybe after five years they won’t need to come back.”
Ms Woon said marine experts and activists in the United States are also concerned about Netsiwill’s proposed fishing venture in the Bahamas. South Floridians Don deMaria, a marine research expert, and Bill Parks, a tropical fish collector, believes the Bahamas fisheries would not withstand such large-scale fishing.
David Rose, a retired 30-year fisherman, said that the Bahamian waters are already overfished and does not think the group’s venture would be successful.
“I don’t know a whole lot about what they are doing. But to support a fleet – I don’t think it is feasible and I don’t think they are going to catch enough to support their venture,” he said.
Mr Rose said people seem to think that the Bahamas has unlimited fisheries.
“That’s just not case. There are a lot of people that come here from the Florida coastline for many years fishing out our resources. The Bahamas is really a fragile place and we need enforcement of our fisheries,” he said.
By Denise Maycock, The Tribune
