Quiet war waged on Bahamian waters
By CHESTER ROBARDS
Business Reporter
crobards@tribunemedia.net:
“Expulsis, piratis, restitua commercia” - Piracy expelled commerce restored. Funny how history has a way of repeating itself!
There is a quiet war being waged in Bahamian waters, where unarmed Bahamian fishermen are dueling poachers – often armed to the teeth – for their own survival and the security of their almost $100 million or more industry.
While this is not the canon blasting, sail tearing piracy of old, stories have come from the Tongue of the Ocean recounting our fishermen boarding poaching vessels and commandeering catch stolen from their own traps.
Many other stories tell of encounters with poachers brandishing semi-automatic weapons and opening fire on Bahamian fishermen. They have even exchanged gunfire with the authorities put in place to protect this country’s marine resources.
However, the fishermen say the Royal Bahamas Defence Force (RBDF) often does not respond to their positions when radioed for help.
Vessels
These same fishermen recently identified as many as 11 poaching vessels in the Great Bahama Bank, some with Spanish names they now believe to have originated in the Dominican Republic.
Bahamas Commercial Fishers Alliance's (BCFA) chief, Adrian LaRoda, told The Tribune that poaching is threatening the survival of one of this nation’s largest exports, the spiny lobster, with poachers removing up to 22 million pounds a year of the product from these waters.
He said that while marine life was a valuable resource for this country, it was slowly being depleted by poachers from neighbouring countries such as the Dominican Republic.
According to Mr LaRoda, the BCFA has identified several vessels that poach in Bahamian waters. He said those ships can often carry up to 60,000 pounds of fish or lobsters out of these waters on one trip. And often, when caught, they are not stripped of their cargo, by the authorities but made to pay a $10,000 fine – often 0.5 per cent of the total value of their catch.
National Security Minister Tommy Turnquest said recently that measures have been put in place to thwart poaching in Bahamian waters for the opening of this crawfish season.
Mr Turnquest said a defence force ship and a smaller, faster craft, have been assigned to patrol the Great Bahama Bank.
He cautioned fishermen not to approach the poachers if they happened upon them, but to call for assistance.
“We don’t expect Bahamian fishermen to be out there in a fight by themselves,” Mr Turnquest said.
Abner Pinder, Spanish Wells’ Chief Counselor, said he has not yet received any reports about poachers from any of the vessels that originate from his island since the start of this crawfish season.
“I would be the first person they call,” said Mr Pinder.
Efforts
According to him, “no news is good news,” from the crawfish vessels. This, he said, he hopes is indicative of the efforts put forth by the RBDF.
“The same way I know how to raise cane when nothing is being done, I can give credit where credit is due,” he said.
The fishermen are often away from their families when the season begins, for up to six weeks at a time, stopping home mid-trip only for fuel and a quick family visit.
With the global downturn crashing crawfish market values last year, fishermen are hoping for larger catches and even larger returns than 2009.
And because the Bahamas was barred from trading with the European Union in January of this year, the fishing industry and its distributors have enough to worry about, without worrying about hundreds of thousands of pounds of their livelihood being sold on the black market.
Glenn Pritchard, president of Tropical Seafood, and Mia Isaacs, president of the Bahamas Marine Exporters Association (BMEA), spoke to Tribune Business recently about the implementation of the catch certificate.
Implementing the processes that would bring this certificate into force was the most important focus for the fisheries industry for the past seven months, as without it the Bahamas would not be allowed to trade with the EU.
If the chain of custody for lobster tails is not certified by the use of those certificates, countries in Europe could reject shipments of crawfish from the Bahamas, completely devastating the industry.
The certificates, which authorities have for months trained Bahamian fishermen to use, will allow purchasing entities to trace catches from their possession all the way back to the fishing boat that made the catch – and possibly even back to the exact spot in Bahamian waters where the product was caught.
Mandate
This requirement is part of a global mandate to help countries ensure their food exports are safe and traceable, and that they keep their marine resources in check to ensure sustainability.
To further the legitimacy of this country’s fisheries, the Bahamas is looking into joining the Marine Stewardship Council’s (MSC) fisheries programme which at this time is voluntary.
The MSC is the world’s leading environmental certification programme for wild-caught fisheries and many importers of this country’s lobster tails are increasingly demanding that countries from which they purchase must be certified, in an effort to combat Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing issues.
When the Bahamas brings into force the MSC certification it is likely that many poachers will find a closed market for their product.
While poachers may find it increasingly difficult to sell their stolen wares on the global market, they seem not to fear the Bahamas’ justice system, where they continue to be held for only days at a time when caught for poaching and then released, often without their illegal catches being confiscated, according to some fisheries heads.
Mr Turnquest suggested recently that there could be a connection between some defence force officers and poaching vessels.
While he did not say what those relationships might be, he said the Ministry of National Security has enacted an operation to squeeze out anyone who might be working in cahoots with the poachers.
According to him intelligence gathering operations have been put in place within the RBDF in an attempt to figure out how so many poaching boats reported, could avoid capture.
“They can’t continue to evade us every time we go down,” he said. “It is a huge issue for the fishermen and they have been in constant contact with the Defence Force, particularly with regards to Dominicans on the Great Bahama Bank.”
While the minister seems to have the best interest at heart for the fishermen, he could not say why poachers who have been caught have not been convicted of a crime against the Bahamas.
“We bring them in,” is all he said.
Mr LaRoda said he has before tracked a group of poachers who had been captured.
According to him, he periodically checked on the men while they were being held in the Charmichael Road Detention Centre, only to find out one day that they had been fined, released and never stripped of their catch or their vessel in accordance with the law.
Some avid readers of this paper’s website tribune242.com chimed in saying: “The Government of the Bahamas needs to be better protectors and stewards of Bahamian marine resources.
“The rich seabeds of the Bahamas need the protection of the Bahamas Defence Force. If placing a New Defence Force Base at Great Inagua to better protect the valued resources of the Southern Bahamas is needed... put the resources where it is needed.”
Another reader added: “They’ve been spotted in waters off east Abaco on many occasions, but no defence force patrols are seen in the area. Stiffer fines/jail terms and better policing are needed or we will lose a lot.”
Fishermen are hoping for a robust crawfish season this year, and with the European market opened back up to them, they could see the financial returns awarded them before the recession.
Though Bahamian fishermen threatened this year to go out in a blaze of glory if they encounter poachers, it is not the pirate battle of old they are hoping for. They are simply businessmen protecting their livelihood. They are intent on restoring commerce on the seas to which they have been accustomed for years as were their fathers before them.
The fishermen only ask for help from the authorities and that justice be carried out on poachers according to the laws of the land.
August 09, 2010
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