By ALISON LOWE
Tribune Staff Reporter
THE government is set to amend the law to prohibit "purse seine" or net fishing in The Bahamas after receiving a flood of calls and e-mails from concerned Bahamians, environmentalists and sportsfishermen fearing that a large fishing vessel is set to wreak havoc on Bahamian tuna stocks using the controversial fishing method.
In a release issued yesterday by the Ministry of Agriculture and Marine Resources, the Government said it is "not minded to permit the use of purse seine or net fishing within the waters of The Bahamas" and will now make the necessary amendments to the Fisheries Conservation (Jurisdiction and Conversation) Act and Regulations to close a legislative loophole that would have made it legal to do so.
Their swift action comes after alarm was raised two weeks ago over the presence of a large fishing vessel docked in Freeport which is allegedly outfitted to become the first to engage in tuna netting on a mass commercial scale in Bahamian waters.
After a number of concerned citizens contacted the media about the boat, which was said to have a "purse seine net" -- a deep, basket type net recognised for not only being able to capture large quantities of schooling fish such as tuna, but also other marine creatures like dolphins and turtles -- the Bahamas National Trust also advised the Government "to re-consider any permits issued to the vessel in question and to move swiftly to enact policy to outlaw this unsustainable form of fishing."
In doing so, said the BNT, the Government would "prevent what would undoubtedly be the beginning of the end of our sportsfishing industry."
"It would appear that the fishing vessel currently in Freeport plans to target yellowfin tuna. Yellowfin tuna in the Atlantic Ocean are managed by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT)."
"Stock assessments to date have determined that yellowfin tuna are fully exploited in the Atlantic with harvest levels near maximum sustainable yield. Concerns are growing over increasing catches of Yellowfin tuna, especially by longline fleets that are making unregulated harvests in the Atlantic outside the authority of ICCAT," the BNT said.
Some fisheries experts, the BNT said, believe that with the Atlantic harvest of tuna near maximum sustainable yields that the warm waters of the Bahamas and the Caribbean may be the last stronghold of this important fishery species.
The BNT called purse seine netting a "destructive method" of fishing that involves "indiscriminately catching not only adult tuna but also immature tuna, thus dealing the fishery the additional blow of juvenile mortality."
Meanwhile, a group called "Stop Commercial Fishing of Yellowfin Tuna in The Bahamas" launched earlier this month in response to the perceived threat posed by the Freeport-based fishing vessel had collected 2,315 vocal supporters as of yesterday.
In its statement, the Ministry agreed that purse seine or net fishing could result in the possible depletion or significant reduction of the fishing stocks in Bahamian waters.
It said the decision to move to outlaw the activity was taken "having regard to the importance of sportfishing to the tourism industry."
Amended legislation will "prohibit the use of purse seine or net fishing to ensure that all fisheries resources, including migratory fish, are maintained at sustainable levels."
