By DIANE PHILLIPS

Real estate pioneer and triathlete Mario Carey, who spends a lot of time in the water and is as comfortable diving Dean’s Blue Hole as I am driving to work, has been ranting about the issue of foreigners raping our waters, taking our fish, conch and crawfish for commercial gain for years.

I heard Mario going on about it and I even wrote about it a time or two, but it never really hit home till I saw it one day recently when I happened upon a fishing in The Bahamas series on YouTube. There it was in plain view and brilliant colour – the blue-green waters of The Bahamas, the undeniable, irrefutable evidence of foreigners dressed not in rubber boots and coveralls like fishermen wear but in sun shirts, shorts, rash guards and Ray-Bans. They were raping the waters, taking everything that moved undersea that their spear or rod or gloves could grab and they were bragging about it. Like schoolkids who stumbled upon chocolate bars that fell off the back of a truck.

Two men and a woman on one boat, others in a similar documentary in another YouTube piece. All with shiny, gunning boats and smug, grinning smiles as they pull up grouper, hog fish, crabs, conch. In some of the shots, they are over a reef. In others, they are in deeper waters. They are boasting about the catch. “Look at this, that’s a big one.” “Look at this crab. Bet that’s a 50 dollar right there.”

Buckets of fish

One of the shots accidentally showed buckets of fish. Another showed someone spearing with something that was clearly not a Hawaiian sling. To the best of my knowledge, spearing is still illegal.

These were not casual recreational boaters who came over for a day and were planning to eat what they caught. No, they were in Bahamian waters, taking what they could to sell it when they got back to Miami or Ft Lauderdale.

They were unlicenced, uncontrolled, unbridled thieves of our legacy, of what we need to feed ourselves and to leave to breed and reproduce for future generations.

Every single act that I watched, glued to the TV and furious, was an offence that made me wish I were either a gun-slinging vigilante or really good at wringing someone’s neck. What I saw brought about a streak of violence that I did not even know I had. I was mad, fighting mad and now I need your help. Yours and Fisheries and the Royal Bahamas Defence Force and every Bahamian on any boat or at any dock at any marina where fishing boats gather and brag about their catch.

What gives any boat and the people on it the right to come into Bahamian waters and catch an unlimited number of fish that feed in our Lucayan Sea or Atlantic Ocean or any of our bays? We cannot go to Florida and fish whatever is left of their waters. There are limits but not enough eyes watching. There are size and age restrictions but not enough monitors. We warned of the dangers of boaters earlier this month when a visitor was run over in Exuma, a man who is still suffering. That accident was followed by another in Abaco that left three injured. But the Wild, Wild West of the Waters is not just about safety. It is about the theft, the robbery of our fish, conch and crawfish by foreigners to sell to a foreign market because their own waters are largely fished out.

How are we not all as angry as I am? Maybe it is ourselves we need to be angry at because it is happening right before our eyes while we are looking the other way. It is our fault if we do not make it a priority to preserve the riches of the sea, whether sea grass or what breeds in it. It is our fault if we let others get away with raping our waters and pillaging our villages beneath the surface because we think there will always be more.

The Royal Bahamas Defence Force is doing a much better job of slowing the catch from Dominicans and other larger threats with huge nets and powerful diesels. Now the enemy drives boats that look more like ours. They wear shirts and shorts and smiles that look like tourists out for a day’s excursion. They may be harder to spot but the damage they do is equally frightening for what they can take in a weekend multiplied by dozens in a month can impact the future of what lives beneath the sea and winds up on your table on Sunday after church.

Please, please, take this seriously. And do not misinterpret it to mean an anti-foreign boating bent. Not at all. I fully appreciate the value and economic benefits of the boating and yachting business to The Bahamas, though I believe there is much more we can gain economically from it. This is not about boating. This is about respect for another country’s resources and the right to enjoy the experience while leaving the bounty of the sea for the Bahamian people and future generations to come.

Another look at land registration

Last week’s column on the questions surrounding land registration as a major amendment to old legislation is being debated drew a number of comments, but the most serious and thoughtful came from attorney Andrew O’Brien, a founding partner of GSO (Glinton, Sweeting, O’Brien) law firm.

O’Brien serves as co-chairman of the real estate arm of the Bahamas Bar Association which has paid very close attention to every line of the proposed amendment. In a presentation by a representative from Jamaica who explained how a similar attempt worked in a non-registration environment, he said the result was convincingly positive.

Prior to the requirement to register, folks in Jamaica were even more lax about it than in The Bahamas, but as they cleared up one block after another and the grid began to build, it boosted the economy by making it easier to obtain a mortgage with clean title.

The most valuable information O’Brien shared was the idea that an ombudsman would be appointed for each area, someone chosen who knows that particular neighbourhood, street, community or small settlement and could provide the history that may not have been recorded.

Given the estimate that the process will take 30 years to complete before all ownership of all land in The Bahamas, including commonage and generation property, is established, and any adjustments could be made if an issue arises, it begins to make more sense. Where it could be most valuable is in sorting out generation property if it means the rightful ownership is established and those owners are able to sell or conduct transactions which their lack of proof of ownership now prohibits.

On the other hand, if you have ever sat down with a family and tried to sort out who owns what in the generation house where you are now sitting in the living room, you will understand the challenge. Aunt Berta – she don’ move to Canada, Unca Will, well, he gone ‘way years ago and ain’t no one know where he gone after dat but he say it’s his last I seen a him, and Sheniqua, well, she just say dis is all hers and no one betta go and do nothin’ wid it.

But, as O’Brien said, “the devil is in the detail”.