By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas was yesterday labelled “the laughing stock” of the fly fishing industry, with one local captain and fishing guide revealing his business has declined 50 per cent over the past year.

Captain Tom Albury, founder of Ondaflycharters, told Tribune Business that the Bahamas was losing its fly fishing business to countries such as Cuba, Belize and Mexico, having done itself no favours with the new regulations.

“Cuba is killing us. We have a lot of stepping up to do. Places like Cuba, Mexico and Belize are eating our lunch,” said Captain Albury.

“We’re the laughing stock of the fly fishing industry within the world right now. I have seen my business go down 50 per cent in the past year.”

He added: “Right now there is a mass exodus of people that don’t want to come to the Bahamas. Last January, I had almost 23 trips. I got calls for two trips this January, and neither one panned out.

“As independent guides we were starting to feel the slowdown since March last year. The lodges weren’t feeling the slowdown because most of them were booked a year out. Now they are starting to feel what we felt. Some of those lodges are now down 35-45 per cent year-to-date. You do that across the rest of the year and it might be a pretty shabby year.”    

The new fly fishing regulations came into effect on Monday. They require anglers above the age of 12, and who wish to fish in the flats, to apply for a personal angler’s license and pay a set fee.

Non-Bahamians will have to pay $15 for a daily license; $20 for a weekly license; $30 for a monthly license; and $60 for an annual license.

The regulations also require a foreign vessel wishing to fish in the Bahamian flats to obtain the usual sports fishing permit, with each person on the vessel also holding a personal license.

The regulations also ban commercial fishing in the flats. Anglers are only allowed to catch and release when catching bonefish, permit, snook, cobia and tarpon. And a Conservation Fund for the management and protection of the flats and fisheries resources in the Bahamas will be established.

As reported by Tribune Business, when the proposed regulations were first unveiled, they created considerable controversy and effectively a divide between the 400 local guides and the lodge owners.

Despite the controversy, Bahamas Fy Fishing Industry Association (BFFIA) president, Prescott Smith, in a recent Tribune Business interview described the regulations “one of the biggest pieces of legislation to come about since 1967”, arguing that “closing the loopholes” will increase foreign currency earnings for Bahamians.

But Mr Albury told Tribune Business: “I don’t think anyone is against licensing or that sort of thing, but the enforcement is horrible.

“If we can’t enforce things, then don’t make us the laughing stock of the world. It’s absurd. In Abaco alone you’d need at least 10 boats and 10 officers. With the state of our economy that is not going to happen.”