By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

Bahamian fishermen yesterday said average crawfish prices have dropped by 21.5 percent for this season compared to last year.

Keith Carroll, the National Fisheries Association's (NFA) president, told Tribune Business that average prices were currently $13.75 per pound, whereas they went as high as $17.50 in the prior year.

He said: “We’ve averaged about $13.75 throughout the whole season. It’s a good price but it wasn’t as good as last season. Considering what is going on in the world we had a good price all season. Last year we had as low as $13.50 per pound, and it went up as high as $17.50 per pound. But this season it held to $13.75 for the whole season.”

The crawfish season comes to and end on March 31, but some NFA members have been upset with the way fishing areas are being managed.

In a series of voice notes sent to this newspaper, some NFA members expressed disappointment with the recently-passed Fisheries Act 2020. One member raised concerns about provisions in the Act that require all fishermen to have a tracking device on their vessels to tie in with the Royal Bahamas Defence Force’s tracking equipment.

"You will never see it on my boat,” one said. The Act says the director of fisheries may require a license holder of a fishing vessel to put a “specified mobile transceiver” on their boat.

Another pair of NFA members were arguing over who has the right to pick lobsters from traps that are dropped without any names attached to them. One said this was “wrong and they should go on to their own spot. However, another said: "People take up my traps all the time. I even take up other people’s traps, because I’m not going to leave lobsters on the bed when the bed is for everyone.”

Mr Carroll, in addressing these concerns, said: “I think some of the guys are having a misunderstanding of the Act. Some of them think that people will have ownership to certain parts of the bank. For instance, if I have my traps set around the Coral Harbour area, and if I was fishing it for a little while, then that area belongs to me, but that isn’t so. People are just misunderstanding what the Act is and then getting upset over it.

“There was always a problem with the licensing of the condo traps. Most of the guys who have the condos want them licensed, and the guys that don’t have any feel as though they shouldn’t get any license because the crawfish is allowed to go in them and come out.

"It is not really a trap; it is more like a shelter. But, different from that, all Bahamian fishermen agree with Bahamians only for fishing. They just had a few problems with other parts of the Act.”

Mr Carroll said fishermen now expressing concerns about the Act should have played a greater part in the consultation on it. He added: “You can’t expect the Government to wait around when it has to move forward, so if they only have five people that participated then they have to go with the five that have expressed interest.”

"The new Act has not come into effect yet. It went through the parliament, then it went through the senate and I don’t know what else happened to it, because foreigners are still going on Bahamian boats and no one is stopping them. I have seen this with my own eyes. Foreigners are still going on Bahamian boats.”