The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A legal challenge to the Bahamas Fly Fishing Industry Association’s (BFFIA) disputed elections was said to be brewing yesterday, amid opposition to the organisation being selected as the ‘standard-setter’ for fishing guides.

Cindy Pinder, vice-president of the Abaco Fly Fishing Guide Association, told Tribune Business it was “not right” for BFFIA to determine how fishing guides would behave when many in the industry no longer recognised it as the sector’s voice.

Mrs Pinder told Tribune Business that the $141 million industry was “in limbo” following yesterday’s final consultation on the proposed changes to the Fisheries Resources (Jurisdiction and Conservation) Act and accompanying regulations.

While the previous meeting had raised some optimism, she said yesterday’s outcome had created “more division” within an industry vital to attracting high-paying stopover visitors and second homeowners.

And Mrs Pinder said she was especially upset that V Alfred Gray, minister of agriculture and marine resources, told yesterday’s consultation that the BFFIA would set the standards fishing guides must meet to become licensed and certified.

“One huge disappointment that happened today was we were trying to debate who would make the standard for guides,” she told Tribune Business.

“The Minister said the BFFIA would make the standard for guides. We don’t recognise them as the voice of the industry. But the Minister said that until we could prove legally that the elections were not legitimate, they are the voice.”

The Abaco Fly Fishing Guide Association, together with some guides from Grand Bahama and elsewhere, are refusing to recognise the BFFIA as the industry’s governing body following its controversial - and hotly disputed - annual general meeting (AGM) last month.

Although hotly disputed by BFFIA president, Prescott Smith, Mrs Pinder and others accused its Board members of stretching out the AGM agenda to delay voting in the director elections until late in the afternoon - a time when many Family Island guides and lodge owners had been forced to leave and head for the airport to catch return flights.

Suggesting that Mr Gray’s ‘standard-setter’ decision would prompt legal action over the AGM, Mrs Pinder told Tribune Business: “Our next step is a legal action to work out what went wrong at the AGM.

“To have a group that doesn’t represent us.... Two-thirds of the members didn’t vote, and to have them say how we’re going to behave as guides, no, that’s not right.”

Mrs Pinder said it would not just be the Abaco Association but guides from Grand Bahama and other islands who were unable to vote at the AGM. She added that the inability of many BFFIA members to vote in the director elections would be a key element of the legal challenge.

As for today’s legislation consultation, Mrs Pinder said the only thing the meeting was able to agree on was the definition of ‘flats’ in the context of fishing.

“I would say today’s meeting caused more division. It was a disappointment. This is really, really important stuff; really important to our industry, and I feel sad,” Mrs Pinder said.

“I don’t think there’s been anything resolved. It was a bit disappointing. I honestly don’t have any hopes at all right now. At the last meeting, they said they’ll put it [the legislation] together and send it on to Parliament.

“I think we all left the first consultation feeling very positive, and as we left today it’s not looking very hopeful.”

She added: “I think no information is almost as harmful as any information. People are patiently waiting to hear what has come from the consultation - tourists, second home owners, guides.

“We have a pricing structure to send out for next year. People are waiting to buy homes based on this. We’re all in limbo.

“With all the other things going on financially in the Bahamas, and Baha Mar, it’s tough. We’re in a tough situation.”

Mrs Pinder said all industry participants recognised the need for fishermen to pay a licence fee to help protect the Bahamas’ national resources, adding that this should be the basis for any new regulatory regime.

“All of us are in it for the same reason,” she told Tribune Business. “We’re all guides, lodge owners. We’re trying to live the good life. But here we are fighting. It’s sad.

“We are one family. We all want what’s best for the industry. We all want what’s best for the Bahamas. We need to work together. It’s just sad.”

The main criticisms over the new Act and accompanying regulations are that the consultation period has been too short; the fees and processes for obtaining fishing licences are inflexible and overly bureaucratic; that the ‘red tape’ and extra costs will make the Bahamas uncompetitive and send anglers elsewhere; and that while everyone acknowledges the need to conserve this nation’s natural resources and ensure Bahamians get a ‘fair piece of the economic pie’, the reforms appear too protectionist.

At the centre of the controversy is the proposed requirement that all visiting fly fishermen, even experts coming to the Bahamas for decades, have to hire a local guide at a cost of $600 per day, along with stricter definitions for foreigner anglers and foreign-owned bone fishing lodges.

Tourism stakeholders are especially concerned that the planned changes to the Act and accompanying regulations will create more ‘red tape’ and price the Bahamas out of the market.