The Ministry of Environment, together with the Dominican Council of Fisheries and Aquaculture (Codopesca), the Dominican Navy, and with the assistance of the National Environmental Protection Service (SENPA), a Ministry of Environment agency, intervened simultaneously five coastal provinces and seized large quantities of parrotfish, one of the species banned under Decree 418-21.
Article 1 of Decree 418-21 prohibits the capture, fishing and commercialization of herbivorous reef fish families.
The operation was headed by the Vice Minister of Coastal and Marine Affairs, José Ramón Reyes, and the executive director of Codopesca, Carlos Then.
The species included in the regulation are: the Scaridae, which correspond to parrotfish, soapfish, butu and parrotfish; the Acunthuridae, called doctors and surgeons; the Pomacanthidae, which are angelfish; Chaetondontidae, the butterflies, and the Holothuroidea, called sea cucumbers and holothurians.
The Ministry of Environment seeks to comply with Decree 418-21 to protect coral reefs that are among the most biodiverse tropical ecosystems in the world, built and maintained by living organisms very susceptible to overfishing, including herbivorous fish, such as parrots and doctors, which are key to the preservation of this marine community.
The Ministry of Environment reports ongoing efforts to comply with Environment Law 64-00 that establishes the protection of biological diversity. The law entitles the Ministry to undertake actions for seasonal fishing bans and to retain shipments of wildlife products. Article 149 of the law authorizes the Ministry to determine the methods and practices of fishing, introduction, transplantation, cultivation and breeding, the places and dates, the species that may be captured, their size, sex and the number of specimens that may be captured.
The parrotfish is essential to creating the white sand of Dominican beaches, which is why it has a high ecological value. The tropical species has a particular dentition, which enables it to gnaw the coral reefs, thus doing a cleaning job against the algae contained in this marine community that cause the extinction of the coral reefs.
Read more in Spanish:
Ministry of Environment
Diario Libre
13 February 2023