By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business 
Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas Commercial Fishers Alliance (BCFA) is calling on the Government to conduct an assessment of the country’s fisheries stock, its president arguing that fishermen who are the “foremost observers of the marine environment” did not believe a three-week extension to the grouper season would negatively impact inventories.

“We want the Government to undertake the overall stock assessment on not only grouper but all of our main products, conch, lobster, snapper and sponge,” said Adrian LaRoda.

“In the absence of an overall stock assessment there are some who will say the resources are being threatened, and then there are those who are saying it’s not correct. The people saying it’s not correct are the fishermen, the very ones out there every day. It makes no sense for fishermen to want to catch every fish out of the sea. We have been practicing sustainable fishing methods now for eons. That’s why we still have fish products today.”

Mr LaRoda added: “The fishermen, who are the foremost observers of what goes on in the marine environment, if they do not feel like a three-week extension is going to negatively impact the overall aggregation and stock, there is no reason why the Government should not allow it.

“You have other aggregations spawning basically up to March, so what do you do: Close the whole thing? What we are also advocating, and will continue to ask the Government for, is for the establishment of more Marine Protected Areas. That will eliminate the problem where you have to make a proposal to the Government to justify the extension of an open season on something. Those areas would further assist in bolstering the fish stocks.”

The BCFA has asked the Government to grant a 30-day extension to the grouper season. The season traditionally closes on December 1 for three months, reopening at the end of February.

But the Bahamas National Trust and the Bahamas Reef Environment Educational Foundation have rejected calls for the 30-day extension. BNT executives said they did not agree that a ‘short-term economic gain at the expense of spawning groupers would be worth the long-term impact that would be wrought as a result.’

“The affect of grouper or any fish aggregation is always a concern of ours, but we have asked the Government to extend the open season for the harvesting of grouper through January,” Mr LaRoda said.

“The season normally closes on December 1. We have asked them to extend it to January for a number of factors. The previous hurricane and bad weather has affected the operations of a lot of fishermen. We accept that these kinds of things happen, but that’s primarily why we ask for the extension, to allow certain people in certain communities to be able to recover from the losses of revenue they would not have been able to earn because of the passing of the hurricane and the bad weather before and after that.

“We asked for for the extension because we must also consider that there are people in the FamilyIslands whose sole source of revenue is fisheries ,and if they could not harvest any product up to now we should consider extending the harvesting period. They would burden not only their own communities but social services in general.”

Mr LaRoda added: “The Bahamas is still a top tier country in terms of its marine resources. Fishermen throughout the years have been practicing sustainable practices in the management of the fisheries business, which has caused our fisheries resources to be where they are.

“Yes, we can say that some product may be threatened, but on the grand scheme of things fishermen are not seeing that, because they have always maintained that there is a certain wary to do things.

“The lack of a fast-paced forward movement in terms of new fisheries techniques have almost worked well for us, because our fishermen have employed the same methods for eons now.

“Other nations have employed more advanced methods that harvest more product in a shorter space of time.”