By SANCHESKA DORSETT

Tribune Staff Reporter

sdorsett@tribunemedia.net

STATE Minister of National Security Keith Bell yesterday advocated for the government to take more aggressive measures against Dominican poachers, claiming that the intruders are becoming “more and more violent” towards fishermen and the Royal Bahamas Defence Force.

While addressing members of the Senate, Mr Bell said fines are not working and discussions with the Dominican government have fallen on “deaf ears”.

He said despite being charged over and over again and having their vessels taken away, the Dominicans continue to come back, relentlessly and aggressively.

Earlier this month, the RBDF arrested more than 100 Dominicans who were poaching in the Great Bahama Bank. During the apprehension, Her Majesty’s Bahamian Ship Madeira received substantive damage after the poachers rammed their boat in to the Defence Force vessel.

Mr Bell said the damage will cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In May, marines were involved in a shootout and subsequent high-speed chase with suspected Dominican poachers in the Cay Lobos area. No marines were hurt, nor were any of the vessels damaged during the encounter.

“We have had major challenges on the sea and each time the Dominicans are getting more and more aggressive. This government has had meetings with the Dominican government and we sought to put in place policies and safeguards through diplomatic means but in my humble estimation it has all fallen on deaf ears because the Dominicans continue to come,” Mr Bell said.

“Their acts of aggression has gotten worse and so that means, and I wish to make it very clear, collectively we as legislators have to determine what it is we are going to do as it relates to the protection of our boarders. On one Dominican fishing vessel you will find they have about 50 dingys, so when the mother ship anchors they release about 50 dingys out to go and fish in our waters.

“When I saw one of the boats, they have these walk in freezers between, two of the boats they had over 1,500  sacks of lobsters and crawfish and they had them itemized by size. What makes matters worse, many of these persons have poached in our waters before and were convicted and this is why I believe that our job here is very serious. We have to determine whether or not our laws are effective enough because despite being fined $20,000 on the last occasion, they are back. This time they are fined up to $70,000. One of our new boats they rammed it, a big hole is in the side, hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage and who will pay for it, the taxpayers. So I want us to think very seriously as to how we will deal with these persons because obviously fines, regardless of the amounts are not enough.”

The government has previously engaged the Dominican government in discussions in an attempt to curb the long-standing problem of poachers from that country robbing Bahamian waters of hundreds of thousands of pounds of seafood.

In February 2015, Agriculture Minister V Alfred 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.

He 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.

In May, 11 Dominicans were fined a collective $170,500 in Magistrate’s Court after pleading guilty to five poaching related charges. The Dominicans, including a 16-year-old, pleaded guilty to charges of engaging in foreign fishing in the exclusive fishing zone of the Bahamas, possession of Nassau Grouper weighing less than three pounds each, possession of fresh crawfish during a closed season, possession of crawfish measuring less than three and a quarter inches and possession of a shark.

They were each fined $10,000 with respect to illegal fishing, $1,000 for the undersized groupers, $2,500 for the closed-season crawfish, $1,500 for the undersized crawfish and $500 for the Lemon shark. They were told failure to pay the fine would result in eight months at the Department of Correctional Services.