The Tribune

By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

A “five-fold” increase in fines levied against poachers operating in Bahamian waters has been approved by Cabinet, Agriculture Minister V Alfred Gray confirmed yesterday.

Speaking on the sidelines of a workshop at the Melia hotel for the establishment of a quality control infrastructure in the Bahamas, Mr Gray said the Christie cabinet has approved harsher penalties for both captains and crew members engaged in poaching.

He said this is an attempt to “ensure that Bahamian people benefit from what’s in the Bahamas.”

He also said he was seeking cabinet’s approval – with cooperation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs – to formally announce a policy that mandates that only Bahamians can work on Bahamian vessels.

“We are a country that must protect our borders, and we cannot depend on any other country to help us if they are not willing to do so,” Mr Gray said. “That’s why the government has spent $200m to provide the vessels that would be required to prevent poaching, and wherever we can that’s what we will do.

“I have gotten cabinet’s approval to increase the penalty on poaching. Presently it’s $50,000 for the captains as a fine. We have gotten approval to increase it five-fold to $250,000 for the captain. It used to be $5,000 per crew member; we have gotten approval to increase it to $25,000 per crew member on the vessels which we might arrest.”

The government engaged the Dominican government in discussions in an attempt to curb the longstanding problem of poachers, mainly Dominican, robbing Bahamian waters of hundreds of thousands of pounds in seafood.

In February, Mr Gray said he met with Dominican Republic President Danilo Medina who gave his assurances that the Christie administration had the country’s full support in tackling the issue.

Mr Gray said a memorandum of understanding was prepared, with one of the conditions being that Dominican vessels were to be outfitted with GPS systems to ensure that the fishermen do not venture out of their own borders.

However, with the continued violation of the fisheries laws, Mr Gray said he was not sure whether officials in the Dominican Republic took the government’s warnings seriously.

He reiterated that he was “not satisfied” with “the progress of those negotiations.”

However, he said, the government is in the process of tackling another issue, the issue of Bahamian fishermen using Dominicans and other nationalities to captain and serve as engineers on Bahamian vessels.

“…But as soon as these (Bahamian) vessels leave the ports, the captains and the engineers go overboard and dive as if they were (Bahamian) fishermen,” he said. “That’s not going to be allowed to happen. I am seeking cabinet’s approval formally – we have discussed it, and I am asking the government to formally approve by announcement – that there will be no nationals other than Bahamians working on Bahamian vessels.

“We will only approve Bahamians working on Bahamian fishing vessels or fishing in the Bahamas. Period. Marrying a Bahamian doesn’t give you citizenship. When you get it, come, we’ll talk to you. But until you get citizenship we’re not talking to you, because we are not going to allow this abuse of our immigration work permit system to continue.

“I am hoping that in the next week or two the Foreign Affairs Ministry will join me in formalising that announcement, so Bahamians need to know don’t apply for these people to be engineers and captains knowing that you’ll put them overboard. We’re not going to give you permits for any of them unless you can show us evidence, and I think it’s going to be impossible for them to show us in advance, that that’s going to happen. We’re going to tighten up our laws to ensure the Bahamian people benefit from what’s in the Bahamas.”

Earlier this month, two Dominican registered vessels and a group of Dominican fishermen were reportedly apprehended for fisheries violations in Bahamian waters by Royal Bahamas Defence Force patrol craft HMBS Durward Knowles while on routine patrol in the southern Bahamas.

On October 2, six undocumented crew members on board a Bahamian fishing vessel were arrested by RBDF officials for violation of fisheries and immigration laws.

The boat was intercepted five nautical miles off Damas Cays in the area of Cay Sal with an undetermined quantity of scaled fish. Of the six on board, one was a Haitian while the rest were Dominicans.

In an effort to bolster the RBDF fleet in response to these issues, the Christie administration earlier this year announced its purchase of nine new RBDF vessels through a loan from Deutsche Bank.