The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

A Cabinet minister yesterday denied the Government has been soft on illegal poaching and foreign fishermen approvals, citing the refusal to grant more compressor permits as a tightening of its stance.

Michael Pintard, minister of agriculture and fisheries, told Tribune Business: “When I came in the chair I met with the commercial fishers, and I indicated to them that compressor permits that were being signed were only being signed by virtue of the fact that I wanted to determine whether or not the claims that there aren’t sufficient Bahamians in this sector, and it necessitated the survival of their business that they hire non-Bahamians to dive, whether or not that was accurate.

"We were on the eve of that particular season, and obviously their business model, they had expected to proceed as they had normally been proceeding. I said clearly that one year from now I do not intend to go down this road, and I fundamentally did not believe that it was appropriate and toward that end.”

Mr Pintard was responding to a voice note created by a Spanish Wells fisherman, Chuck Pinder, who said the Government had taken little to no action when it came to poaching and the number of Dominicans and other foreigners being permitted to fish legally in Bahamian waters.

"My second point: We sought to establish a dive programme to increase the number of Bahamians who would be available as potential divers on different vessels," Mr Pintard added. "They may certainly use their certifications to do other things, but that was one option - that they can become commercial divers on the lobster boats. That programme was instituted and over-subscribed.”

Mr Pintard said when permits came up for renewal the following year, he “followed through on what was said" and, of the more than 600 compressor permits given out every year, the vast majority now go to Bahamians. "I think less than 45 applications are submitted on behalf of non-Bahamians," he added, "so clearly Bahamians are available in the dive industry.

"In terms of finding the workforce that you want, of course this is not just true in the fisheries sector but this is true in other sectors as well. We have some work to do. However, I was not prepared to compromise on that issue and neither was the Cabinet of The Bahamas.

"Out of the abundance of caution I had discussions with the minister of immigration and the former minister of immigration, and the current one as well as the minister of labour took the matter to Cabinet and got the concurrence of Cabinet that our position would be that provisions would not be made for non-Bahamians to work in the fisheries sector, only on the processing side but not on the fishing side. We have maintained that.”

Mr Pintard said his ministry’s partnership with the Royal Bahamas Defence Force and the Royal Bahamas Police Force has been “strong”, and enforcement has focused not only on Dominican poachers but US sports fishermen thar have been “equally depleting Bahamian resources".

"We have worked with national and international law enforcement to protect the Bahamian borders," the minister added. "That has resulted in prosecutions, not just in The Bahamas, and we believe that this is a record number of prosecutions we have had in the last two years, at least on the number of vessels that have been interdicted by the RBDF and the number of persons who have been charged, convicted and incarcerated.

"The level of fines have been heftier in this period than anyone can recall, and so we have broken new grounds in terms of sending a strong message to the international community about not illegally fishing in Bahamian waters. We have also been diligent in seeking to educate Bahamians and, unfortunately, where it is necessary they have also been brought before the courts for illegal, unregulated, unreported fishing.

Mr Pintard added: “You are aware they have taken us to court, the Dominicans? We are now before the courts because they have sued us for rights to participate in diving in Bahamian waters, and that is Dominicans who now live in The Bahamas have also taken us to court, them and their commercial boat owners. On the petition it says Dominicans, but we believe there are others behind the scene.

“I should also mention this. With respect to the poachers, we are now going after the beneficial owners of these vessels. So towards that end we have been having conversations with regional partners, including the United States as well. The minister of foreign affairs has been in discussions with the ministry of foreign affairs in the Dominican Republic, and we have also been deepening our relationship with the Cuban government on this issue as well.

"So the regional cooperation, we see it as being extremely important. The minister of foreign affairs has also had conversations with his counterpart in the Turks and Caicos Islands, so we believe that part of the issue is having a regional approach to addressing this. The RBDF has also spent millions of dollars on drone technology, and using that drone technology to help with the patrols when they are out to sea.

Mr Pintard continued: “We have also responded to the call to sink these vessels, because when you sell the vessels to Bahamians one of the things that happens is the RBDF has to then chase these vessels when a report is given because they have a distinct look, only to find out that there is a Bahamian on it.

"So the monies the government can earn by selling these vessels or keeping them is a drop in the bucket just in terms of the cost of fuel and human hours chasing these vessels, only to find out that it is not a poacher.

"So for that reason we have been sinking these vessels, as we have committed, and the dinghies have been distributed among fishers throughout The Bahamas. We have listened attentively and have been responsive to fishers. We understand their frustration, their anguish. However, if they were to check the list of items raised by themselves one by one with a sense of urgency we have been addressing those.”