By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Bahamian fishermen are warning “we must not let our guard down” over illegal poaching despite enjoying a 10-15 percent year-over-year increase in lobster catch volumes for the season to-date.

Keith Carroll, the National Fisheries Association’s (NFA) president, told Tribune Business that Dominicans and other foreign nationals who have previously plundered this nation’s fisheries stocks are “only waiting for us to slip up and they’ll be right back” with catch quantities proving critical to the success many Bahamian fishermen are presently seeing.

With lobster prices relatively flat year-over-year, standing at around $12 per pound since crawfish season began on August 1, the seemingly plentiful supply of lobster has been key to the harvest and earnings of Bahamian fishermen. And this sustainability has been aided by the law enforcement crackdown on illegal poaching, especially by foreigners but also some Bahamians, that depleted fish stocks in the past.

Mr Carroll, who told this newspaper that there have been precious few sightings and reports of commercial Dominican fishing operations penetrating The Bahamas’ territorial waters, said of the current lobster season which ends on March 31: “It’s been pretty good. It’s a pretty good season compared to last season.

“The price has probably been around the same. The price has held at $12 [per pound] all season. I don’t know if it will go up any more before the end of the season, but we’ve been getting $12 all the way through. Last year it went up a bit towards the end of the season but basically it’s been around the same thing.”

The Association president said crawfish prices have moderated back in line with typical market levels, having risen as high as $20-$21 per pound during COVID and its immediate aftermath when global supplied were limited - and lobster more scarce - because few fishermen were working due to pandemic-related restrictions in other nations.

“It’s back down to normal pricing. Usually it is between $12 and $15 a pound. We haven’t seen it go to $15 year. I’m not sure what’s causing it,” Mr Carroll added. This is where fisheries and lobster sustainability and conservation become critical to ensuring a plentiful supply that helps fishermen offset lower prices with higher catch volumes.

“The catch is up for us, I would say, about 10-15 percent over last year,” he told Tribune Business. “It’s up a bit. A lot depends on the weather. We had some good weather forecasts. If the weather is in or favour we know we will do good. I trap lobsters. We really need a strong cold front. We had a couple, and did well.”

Equally important is protecting Bahamian fisheries stocks and fishermen from illegal fishing and poachers. Mr Carroll credited stepped-up patrols and enforcement by the Royal Bahamas Defence Force, in collaboration with the Department of Marine Resources and other agencies, as well as “stiff fines” and other penalties with helping to deter and slash poaching incidents in recent years.

“We still have problems from our own, Bahamians going into someone’s traps,” he told this newspaper. “We mustn’t let our guard down. They’re [poachers] only waiting for us to slip up and they’ll be right back. It was doing our country bad.

“Some guys went out of business, some fishermen didn’t want their children to go into the industry because of the hell they were catching. It did a lot to the fishing industry. Only the strong survived. The results show what they were doing to the country.”

Besides the threat posed by the large commercial poaching operations of Dominicans and other nationals, Mr Carroll also voiced concern about illegal activity involving foreign charter vessels and tourists who entered this nation from the US. 

“That’s a big problem, too. The fishermen from the US that fish the northern Bahamas. That’s a big problem. We have to take it seriously because it’s like I say: Everybody is looking for a chance to come. We have to treat it seriously,” he added.

Bahamian authorities on January 27, 2025, disclosed they had arrested a vessel, ‘Highly Migratory’, and its three American occupants who were accused of conducting at least “a dozen” illegal charters in breach of the Fisheries Act because they did not possess the necessary permits.

Paul Maillis, the National Fisheries Association’s (NFA) secretary, told Tribune Business that the much longed-for crackdown on poaching and other illegal activities is what Bahamian fishermen have been “screaming about” for decades given the threat it posed to their livelihoods, income and families.

“All the work done to combat illegal poaching, and illegal commercial poaching, in the waters of The Bahamas is paying off,” he told Tribune Business. “The efforts of the Defence Force and Department of Marine Resources have been very fruitful; not just commercial fishing poachers, but illegal charter operations have been shut down.”

Praising the authorities for enforcing Bahamian fisheries laws, Mr Maillis said: “It’s crucial. It’s what the fishermen have been screaming about. We’ve seen these giant poaching operations here killing everything on the sea floor, and we were doing very little about it. 

“When you see this happening decade after decade, it causes people to lose hope, lose their business, lose faith in our system and not help law enforcement. When people find the law is being enforced, they help the police and Defence Force to crack down on what they see. So much has been done to improve that in recent years. It’s what people wanted.”

Mr Maillis said this, in turn, makes fishermen and other Bahamians more responsible with their own fisheries practices. And he directly linked the improved sustainability of lobster and other Bahamian fish staples to the ability of fishermen to offset lower prices with catch volumes.

“The markets and prices have come back down to normal,” he added. “That’s not necessarily a good thing for fishermen who have come to enjoy a certain price. They have to accept a lower price, but times like these are when the success of the sustainability of spiny lobster fisheries is so crucial.

“When the price comes down and fishermen are able to offset by catching higher spiny lobster volumes, the fact they are able to catch more is a testament to what has been done with spiny lobster fisheries. Let’s hope the price of fuel comes down in the next year or so. The change in leadership in the US may see those prices come down. We’re hoping we’ll start to see overall prices come down but it’s out of our control.”

Mr Carroll, though, said current fuel prices for fishermen were “not too bad” as they were hovering in the range between $4.80 and $5.50.