New Bahamas Fishing Regs

[Nimrod]

Just saw this on another site. Sorry if it is old news......


New Catch Limits For Sports Fishermen

The implementation date of the new limits is January 1, 2007, according to Agriculture and Marine Resources Minister Leslie Miller.

The rules currently allow for six crawfish per person, but that will be changed to six per vessel. Similarly, sports fishermen will no longer be allowed to catch conch at all in Bahamian waters.

The catch limits for demersal fish - groupers and snappers, etc. - will be changed from 20 lbs per person to 20 lbs per vessel and from a total of six pelagic species - dolphins, kingfish, wahoo, tuna, - per person to six per vessel.

......as someone pointed out - if you catch a 22 pound grouper you will have to release it!

[Deep C]

Actually the way the limit is determined is by fillet weight. A loop hole is that you can store it on land and fly it home with your people. Its about time they slowed the bug and conch pilfering.
Heres a funky cross of laws... You can only have 20lb of fillet over there. Its illegal to have filet aboard your boat in the states. Some of our officers on this side may let you slide but others go right for the throat.
Two years ago I had a FWC guy saw me with my quarantine flag comming in and wanted to board. He figured he'd have an easy bust... I stopped him as he was ready to come aboard. "Permission to board, denied! IN fact if you step one foot on this boat I'll take you down and place YOU under arrest. That yellow flag there signifides that yes I am returning from abroad. It also signifies that I have not cleared customs yet and right now my boat and I are property of US Customs. UNtil they clear me you best not even touch my boat. It'll probably be a few hours. You're welcome to wait til they're done."
Boy did he turn purple. Not many people know thats the law and even less have the stones to back a cop off their boat like that.
My island guests each leave with all the fish they can carry. They can purchase conch and bugs (in season) from the natives. We don't dive anyway. Those are the ones who do the most damage over there and now will be the ones who stand to lose the most...

[Nimrod]

I am not familiar with the regs in the Bahamas but did see these comments about the subject on the other site.......

"The NATIVES are the ones who do the most damage; don't ever let the bleeding hearts over here convince you otherwise. I'm no racist, but I get a little tired of the rich Americans always being to blame for Bahamian resources woes. My brother-in-law lived for 4 years in two different remote little island outposts working as a subcontractor for NASA on radar & telemetry stations (as an aside, it was an incredible job -- one that even came with a boat, fuel, free food and a cook/housekeeper), and he told me plenty of stories about the locals' lobstering and fishing practices.

Seeing as how they're freediving everywhere they go for lobster & fish, they don't have time to fool around with the niceties -- like "tickling" a lobster out of the hole. Nope, they use a squirt bottle with a strong bleach concentrate to sting the bug's eyes. Yeah, you'd come out of a hole, too, if somebody blasted your eyes with bleach. Guess what, Johnnie Bahama...it kills the reef.

As for catch limits? Ha! Ever anchor up in a place like Honeymoon Hbr (N side of Gun Cay just south of Bimini) and have a local show up in his jonboat offering to sell you lunch? Every time we've been there, locals have done that, and those jonboats are literally FILLED to the gunwales. Uh, I'm no Bahamian fisheries official, but that's got to be verboten even for a local.

Sorry for the sermon."

.......and re the filet weight:

"Nope not anymore, I did not post the whole writeup on the regs but they changed the rule on fillets as well. The fish must have its head now! If you catch a 20# grouper you can not clean it until you leave the country. Same with pelagics. As far as lobster, I sleep 8 people and now I can not feed one to each of my guests. No conch salad for a fresh lunch? Talk about bitting the hand that feeds you, this is silly and I bet it will be reversed in short order. If not it sucks for them because there are lots of people canceling trips right now."

[Deep C]

Now Now... I know your going on what you heard or what was written it the Jones Bahama online newspaper. As I thought about it some. I recalled hearing that those ideas were floating around their ministries earlier. So I did some digging. After all when has the press ever been right...
Seems one of their ministers Leslie Miler is getting a bit ahead of nimself here. It is as I thought just a proposal and is open for comment.

That info was forwarded to me by their department of fisheries and agriculture. The public is encouraged to voice their opinions to the following...

Fisheries, Department of
East Bay Street
P. O. Box N 3028
Nassau, N.P., The Bahamas

(email) michaelbraynen@bahamas.gov.bs
phone 242 - 393-1777
242-393-1015
242-393-1096
Fax 242 - 393-0238

[Nimrod]

Once again; Thank You DEEP C for educating and enlighting us. It is this kind of shared knowledge that makes SFC the best.