By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS

Tribune Staff Reporter

lmunnings@tribunemedia.net

AUTHORITIES confiscated 1,500 pounds of Nassau Grouper in the past three weeks despite the closed season for the fish, according to acting Director of the Department of Marine Resources Gregory Bethel.

The closed season for the fish is December 1 to March 1.

Mr Bethel said over three weeks, two sting operations between his department and the Royal Bahamas Defence Force tackled mailboats entering Potters Cay Dock.

“We are still engaged in the Nassau Grouper closed season and it is an offence to fish now,” Mr Bethel said. “It’s also an offence to have it for sale. The penalties are $3,000 or a year in prison or both. And so, a word to the wise is sufficient.”

Mr Bethel said penalties were recently imposed in a noteworthy case on Long Island.

“We had an incident in Long Island where two young men, they were found in possession of an excess of 400 pounds of Nassau Grouper, and that only came by way of a traffic accident,” he said.

“And when the police came on the scene, they found them in possession of all of this group. They have since been prosecuted. They were fined $1,500. I think it was 50 hours of community work.”

The director said there had been a general decline in poaching.

“Over the years, we would have had a serious problem with poaching in the southeastern Bahamas, by mainly Dominican fishers who were poaching on a commercial basis,” he said. “In the northwestern Bahamas, we have a similar problem with sport fishers going over their bag limits.

“Now, over the years, the government has been working in conjunction with the Department of Marine Resources and all of the enforcement agencies.

“One of the beautiful things about the new Fisheries Act of 2020 is all enforcement agencies, inclusive of the Royal Bahamas Defence Force, the Royal Bahamas Police Force and Bahamas Customs, they’re all considered what we call authorizing officers. They have the same powers as fisheries inspectors, and so we have broadened our catch.”