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Last Updated: Apr 18, 2018 - 12:44:48 AM |
 (Statement) Save The Bays was shocked and alarmed to learn of the government’s apparent plan to stretch the country’s already overburdened marine resources to breaking point and perhaps beyond – the group calling recent statements by Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries Renward Wells “outrageous” and “uninformed”.
STB chairman Joseph Darville said the Minister’s vow to try and double fisheries exports within a year is reckless, dangerous and an insult to the hard work and sacrifice of countless conservationists over the years.
“The minister simply cannot be serious,” Darville said. “Does he have any idea how hard we have worked to try and preserve our precious – and in many cases endangered – marine resources for the benefits of future generations of Bahamians to come?”
“The mere mention of several over-fished species was bad enough; the suggestion that Bahamians expand into fishing pelagic species, with the attendant threat of dreaded longline and other mass fishing techniques is a truly terrifying prospect. The minister’s comments were as outrageous as they were uninformed.”
Darville said mass fishing techniques damage the environment, harm endangered species, and run the risk of depleting fisheries in an alarmingly short time, particularly in the case of the purse seine method of net fishing, which accounts for more than 60 percent of all commercial tuna fishing around the world. Meanwhile, he said, the scourge of longline fishing is well known and has been rejected repeatedly by governments in the past.
“The Bahamas has built its tourism industry and global reputation on the beauty and bounty of its environment. But this delicate system is always held in a precarious state of balance; the slightest ill-conceived, heavy-handed move on the part of government could bring it all toppling down.
“We as Bahamians have been handed a precious gift and we cannot allow it to be destroyed through shortsighted greed or clumsy quick fix solutions. If we do, our children and their children will be left to suffer the consequences.”
STB Programmes Director Rashema Ingraham noted that the two species mentioned by Mr. Wells as an avenue to increase foreign currency earnings, the Bahamian Spiny Lobster and the Conch, are both under severe threat, despite already being subject to closed fishing seasons.
“The Bahamas National Trust has declared the Queen Conch to be in severe decline, while the spiny lobster is also seriously threatened – precisely because of what BNT executive director Eric Carey described as an ‘nearly insatiable’ export demand.
“To try and double exports of these species would be to risk wiping them out completely. The government should be working to raise awareness of the threats to these iconic species, not becoming complicit in their destruction,” she said.
For his part, Darville called for all conservationists to join together and oppose this initiative and demand an immediate meeting with Minister Wells to make their views known.
“All conservationists should be shocked and alarmed to hear of this effort by the government. It represents a change of course in absolutely the wrong direction after decades of gains in the effort to preserve our marine environment,” he said.
© Copyright 2018 by thebahamasweekly.com
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