New Bahamas Reg's

[fish-n-dude]

This be the latest info I have found. Not looking promising

AMENDMENT TO THE SPORTSFISHING REGULATIONS
Bahamas Information Services

01/12/2007

The Department of Marine Resources wishes to advise the general public that the several amendments to the Regulations governing sportsfishing have been made and that these changes came into force on 1st January, 2007. The amendments which have been made to Regulation 48 of the Fisheries Regulations (Ch. 244 – Subsidiary Legislation of The Bahamas – 2000) have the effect of curtailing the amount of marine resources which can legally be harvested by foreign boaters visiting the Bahamas.

The general public is informed that Regulation 48 now reads:

48. (1) In sportsfishing the following rules apply-

a. A person shall fish by the traditional method of angling with a hook or lure attached to a line held in the hand or attached to a pole, rod or reel;

b. A person, unless otherwise authorized by the respective permit, shall not use a spear, a fish trap, or a net other than a landing net;

c. Each vessel shall use not more than six (6) rods or reels unless the operator is in possession of a permit authorizing the use of more rods or reels;

d. Any migratory fishery resource that is caught shall not in total consist of more than six (6) Kingfish, Dolphin, Tuna or Wahoo per vessel and any resource not intended to be used shall not be injured unnecessarily but be returned to the sea alive;

e. No vessel shall have on board any conch, turtle or more than twenty pounds of any demersal fishery resources (groupers, snappers, etc.) per vessel at any time and excluding not more than six crawfish per vessel.

(2) The limitations specified in (1)(d) and (e) shall also apply to a Bahamian vessel engaged in fishing for purposes other than commercial by persons who are not Bahamians;

3.Subject to paragraph (1) no vessel shall have on board any fish unless its head and tail is intact.

The general public is advised that the Queen Conch (conch) is considered to be an endangered species throughout much of its range within the wider Caribbean area, including The Bahamas. The Government, in an effort to ensure the continued sustainability of local conch stocks, has decided to prohibit the harvesting of the species by foreign boaters.

The general public is further informed that the changes to the Sportsfishing Rules may be found in the Gazette SI 79 of 2006 dated 28 December 2006.

[Fishalways]

b. A person, unless otherwise authorized by the respective permit, shall not use a spear, a fish trap, or a net other than a landing net;


If i'm reading that right, you can't have a cast net?

[fish-n-dude]

Nore a spear or electric reel...

[miamiangler1]

well looks like everyone will be heading to the keys this year

[Gaitor]

It would seem the Bahamian Ministry of Fisheries has whipped out a .357 Magnum and taken direct aim at their big toe.
The small marinas, motels, restaurants and cabbies will,no doubt, feel the economic pinch. Maybe not immediately, but certainly come this summer and opening of lobster season. My boat and my money are stayin' in the U.S.
Good luck over there fellers

[islandshark633]

yeah, Gator, you have it right. Its the hotel folks who will be sitting there wondering how to pay the employees without any business to do it with. I really feel for them as they are the losers here, not the likes of me.

I guess the good minister will achieve his goal of having more fish for Bahamians to catch, just not in the fashion he thought he would...back in England we called it 'throwing the baby out with the bath water'

[ballyhu]

Talk about misguided. The number one business in the Bahamas is by far tourism...and I'm sure that boaters make up a good share of it. Why would anybody spend hundreds of dollars in fuel, hundreds of dollars in cruising and fishing permits, and hundreds of dollars on crummy docks for the chance to catch 6 dolphin in a weekend? Not me. If you take the fishing out of the Bahamas there's no reason to visit...unless you like no see ums, $5 fuel, $40 cases of beer, and non-existent service.

[DIRTYFOOT2]

Rebecca Shoals anyone??

[Fishalways]

Originally Posted by DIRTYFOOT2

Rebecca Shoals anyone??

And where might that be?

[RiskTaker]

Originally Posted by islandshark633

yeah, Gator, you have it right. Its the hotel folks who will be sitting there wondering how to pay the employees without any business to do it with. I really feel for them as they are the losers here, not the likes of me.

I guess the good minister will achieve his goal of having more fish for Bahamians to catch, just not in the fashion he thought he would...back in England we called it 'throwing the baby out with the bath water'

The bath water comment is a good one. Thanks Alan. And thanks for sending your letter to the Ministry as you descrbed on the Caribbean forum section.

Back here in the States in the business world we must keep our ears open for the VOB and the VOC.

The VOB is the "Voice of the Business". This is keeping a good pulse on what it takes to run a viable business. But this condition does not even have any merit without first considering the VOC. This is the balance part without completely giving away the store to the customer.

The VOC is the "Voice of the Customer" . Listening to this voice is critically important to get the business in the first place. If you cannot satisfy the customer requirements, then you will not have a satisfied customer and you could potentially lose the business entirely, depending on how well the customer percieves the Business' attentiveness to meet his requirements.

Understandably we are squawbling about the Bahamas Goverenment recent recreational regulations and not absolutely just a Business concern. But the principles still apply equally well to Governments and not just to the "for Profit" businesses.

I suspect that Minister Leslie Miller has turned a deaf ear to the VOC. In this case the customers being the many Sportsfishermen/Tourists, that visit the Bahamas to fish and to retain a reasonable amount of fish. Many of us travel to the Islands because of the vastness of the Marine resources of the 600+ Islands nation. We have resonable expectations to be able to retain a decent amount of the bounty of the sea. Here there is a large body of sea with a narrow band of people. In Florida, there is a wide band of people with a much narrower band of sea resources. Naturally we will gravitate to the neighbors side with such vast expanses.

The intent of most visitors is not do belittle the Bahamian citizens whatsoever, nor unfairly deplete their resources etiher. We do have a sincere interest to take part in a sustainable harvest; for the pleasure of spending our vacation time and vacation monies doing it and to have some delicious fish for another day. So, absolutely we would like to be able to freeze a few pounds for some future meals. It is not like we take these vacations every weekend and we just fish again the following week.

Clearly the sport of spearfishing has been eliminated.

Clearly the sport of free diving to catch conch has been eliminated.

Even the sport of walking the boat docks to practice "Zen and the art of purchasing Conch" from the locals, has been eliminated.

Thank God there was not a total moratorium on catching crawfish; although, divvying up six crawfish tails for a single evening dinner is going to mean that we have to increase the rations on the rice and the pigeon peas.

I am a tourist, a customer if you will. And I am upset with these new rules. Likely, I will continue to visit the Bahamas because this is a wonderful natural habitat to be. I have constant respect for the people of the Bahamas and do not have any ill intention to deplete their natural resources. The continous commercial pressure, supplying an excessive demand and blatent poaching of resources (by a select few) is where the root of the problems lies, not with the recreational sportsfisherman/tourist. Perhaps it would be wise if more attention were focused on the "big hitters" of the problem and restore reasonable recreation limits to the recreational sportfisherman.

P L E A S E, Mr. Miller.

Of course, I will cheerfully stop or cut back eating fishing, conch, crawfish etc. if the resourses are in a serious state of over harvesting and over fished.

[islandshark633]

Unfortnately I think the good minister Miller has not really turned a deaf ear on the customer, rather he's either ignorant of the realities of fishing or very badly informed.

He has been quoted as believing that the true sportsmen among US visitors are over here are happily releasing everything they catch and calling it a great time, well maybe a few plus all those extremists who chase after bonefish with the funny looking rods, but as we know, not the majority of fishing oriented visitors do this. So to think that there will be no economic impact is pure fantasy.

Secondly, has he thought through the practical ramifications of storing all pelagics in a freezer with the head and tail still attached instead of the traditional fillet? I think the only people who would have the freezer space to acomplish this would be commercial guys with giant freezers....but wait, arent they the ones the new laws are supposed to keep out????

Finally, 20 lbs of demersal? A single Misty grouper will weigh more than that and is not releasable......

[DIRTYFOOT2]

Originally Posted by Fishalways

And where might that be?

Near the dry tortugas, and some of the most fantastic bottom fishing, and deep dropping I've ever witnessed. Second to the gauntllet off canaveral and augustine the 2nd highest concentration of shipwrecks also. Grouper anyone?

[Catch-All]

Butch - I agree, the Tortugas are the shizzle. Friends of mine went on one of those three day overnight trips and caugt a LOT of fish. Big ones too.

But as for fishing vacations that are more chick-friendly, I'm thinking of putting together a summer rental house deal in Islamorada or Marathon for 3-5 couples. In fact, Jim Serra from the 100 Fathom Fishing Club site has a house in Marathon. It's right on the canal with enough docking for two or three boats.

I've done vacays like this before and they are a lot of fun. Fish and dive all day, BBQ that evening and either hang in at night or go out to the local Tiki bars. Sounds good to me and it's a lot cheaper than the Bahamas.

I'm going to email Jim and ask him to post the link to his crib's website on the Links Page.

Catch