The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

I read with disbelief the government's announced intention of shortening the closed season on Nassau Grouper ostensibly to compensate fishermen for disruption to the crawfish season due to hurricanes.

This Landmark Conservation Legislation passed by the former Ingraham government has been hailed as a huge success and it would be terribly short sighted of the current administration to reverse it in the face of that evidence.

Nassau Grouper populations have been on the decline for decades with The Bahamas having some of the few remaining viable spawning aggregates in the region. Harvesting of Nassau Grouper is prohibited in US waters, including Puerto Rico & USVI, and is heavily regulated in Mexico and other parts of the Caribbean.

The species is classified and red listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) the primary reason due to aggregation fishing.

Therefore let us not in our haste to appease and enrich a few now further endanger this already fragile resource at the expense of future generations of Bahamians.

IAN MABON

Nassau,

September 23, 2017.