According to Larry Smith, writing for the Bahamian publication Tribune 242.com, poaching by Dominican fishermen in Bahamian waters is destroying the area’s fish stocks.
Lance Pinder, owner of First One/Miss Londa Marine in Spanish Wells said that: “The bottom line is that the Dominican poaching situation has reached out-of-control status, and the government must deal with it to protect our resources and to protect Bahamians trying to make a living.”
Smith says that environmentalists view the “rape and pillage” of Bahamian fish stocks as perhaps their greatest national threat and apart from the anecdotal evidence of fishermen, a two-year-old report by a top marine scientist has confirmed that poaching by commercial fishermen from the Dominican Republic is the greatest single threat to Bahamian seafood resources.
He goes on to point out that hotels along the Dominican Republic’s northern coast have lobster on the menu for US$16, about half the price of a typical lobster tail dinner in Nassau. And 89,000 pounds of lobster tails were legally imported into the US from the DR in 2010, although, according to Smith, no commercially viable stocks of spiny lobsters exist in Dominican waters.
According to the report, produced by Dr Kathleen Sullivan Sealey, of the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine Science, it takes less than three days to reach the Great Bahama Bank from the north of the Dominican Republic in a fishing vessel travelling at10-12 knots. These boats are typically 65 feet long, and each is attended by a number of smaller skiffs. Fishermen operate from the skiffs using hookahs and spears, at depths well below 60 feet. And divers fish to depths of over 200 feet, reaching deep reef resources not legally fished by Bahamians.
The number of lobsters taken illegally out of Bahamian waters by poachers n based on 30 vessels making six trips a year, with a catch of 10,000 pounds per trip n was estimated at 35 per cent (or 4.3 million) of the known export of 12.5 million lobsters from the Bahamas.
The report pointed out that as many as 65 fishing vessels could be operating from northern DR ports, and lobsters are not their only target. Conch, grouper and other finfish are also taken, as all are highly marketable in the Dominican Republic. And each vessel could land over 70,000 pounds of catch per trip.
“The key to reducing the illegal fishing loss is to prevent illegal fishers from entering Bahamian waters,” her report said. “The process of seizures and prosecutions, along with the cost associated with holding the vessels, crew and catch is largely ineffective. There are charges of corruption, and clearly a strong motivation with the amount of money involved in the sale of lobsters.”
Last summer Immigration Minister Fred Mitchell announced a ban on work permits for non-Bahamian fishermen and early last year, the previous administration launched a diplomatic initiative, with inter-governmental talks set to begin after the election. Subsequently Trade Minister Ryan Pinder, Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell, National Security Minister Bernard Nottage and Fisheries Minister Alfred Gray held four days of meetings in Santo Domingo at the end of October. That was followed up by a visit of Dominican naval officers to Nassau in November.
The meetings with Dominican officials covered information sharing, tracking of Dominican fishing vessels, stiffer penalties for poachers and new ways to fight drug smuggling at sea. “We are cautiously optimistic that there will be some change on the high seas with regards to this poaching issue,” Mitchell said at the time. “We can expect greater enforcement over the next few weeks.”
But there has been no report of any concrete outcomes, and a Defense Force spokesman conceded that “no apprehensions of Dominican poachers have been made in recent times.” Meanwhile, Bahamian fishermen say Dominican poaching is at an all-time high.
www.tribune242.com/news/2013/jan/09/tough-call-scale-illegal-fishing-problem/