Trials, Tribulations and some very good Diving

[BahamaStreaker]

As a Bahamian I find it quite disappointing that you, as a seemingly experienced diver, can complain about lack of fish in the Bahamas in one breath and brag of spearing "summer crab" and lobster in the next breath. I'm sure you respect bag limits and sizes while in the USA, why not in the Bahamas. As you stated you began your trip on the 26th of june. In case you forgot lobster season is closed April 1st to July 31st in the Bahamas. We appreciate that you come and enjoy our Country, but all we ask is that you abide by the rules we have set in place to protect our resources, so that future generations of divers can experience what we get to experience now. I don't want to rain on your parade here but please be respectful when you do come and visit is all I, and all Bahamians, ask for. Otherwise there will be nothing left... as you have already seen first hand with the lack of fish. It is one thing for Bahamians to feed their families with fish and sell to local markets but it is the illegal poaching and filling of coolers and freezers and being taken back to the States, among other places (Dominican republic, Cuba, etc) that has gotten us to the point we are at.

Best Regards
CAPT. Brown

[cdavisdb]

BahamaStreaker,

You raise some very good points, with which I have more than a little sympathy. I think, though, that you are pointing the finger away from Bahamians, when the blame lies with all of us, you included. There is absolutely no question that the unrestricted spearing of most any clear water within range of US recreational and semi-commercial divers is a major problem. I did more than my share of that and only stopped about 30 years back. Now we shoot dinner and occasionally 5 or 6 hogs and coneys on the last day to take home with us, but never shoot any large grouper. I'd much rather play with them. I'm pretty sure that catch is well within the bag limits and we started long before there were baglimits. Personally, I'd like to see them lower an coupled with severely restrictive size limits( which have worked pretty well in US waters). If I wasn't allowed to bring any home, that would be ok.

You are correct that I have a reasonably wide experiance in the Bahamas, including many areas well beyond the reach of any significant harvest by US recreational fishermen or other nationals. Trouble is, the lack of fish includes those areas and many are just about as bad as Bimini. West side of San Salvador and the north side of Rum Cay come to mind. That is Bahamians. Sometimes I suspect it is just folks trying to feed their familes an sell a few on the side. West side of San Salvadore looks like that. Lots of places look like its in large part Bahamian commerical fishermen. North side of Rum has just about zero recreational effort. I've seen commercial divers working south of Cat Cay( where I did a lot of diving and suspect that US divers have had a big impact) and noticed how scalped the area was after they left. I've spent a lot of time around Hole in the Wall and NEVER seen a US recreational boat on the reef and only a very few small Bahamian boats. Bahamian divers now use hookah, far more efficient than freediving at putting fish in the boat. I see lots of fish trap boats with efficient traps now that did not exist 30 years ago. Fish trapping, unless very tightly regulated is a disaster for fish life.

As far a lobster is concerned, before independence, there was a large US commercial diver presense. That is long gone. Uavoidable fact is, the vast majority of the catch for the last 30 years has been Bahamian commercial. Other nationals have certainly done their part in the southern Bahamas, but that doesn't change that fact. US recreational and semi commercial catch is significant in some areas, but not in an overall sense. You are probably correct that I shouldn't catch any outside of the season, but I've always taken my que from the locals, who don't seem to mind getting one or two for dinner. My apologies.

The truth is, we are all guilty and too many management restrictions are based on the principle of " the other guy is the problem, run him off, but don't you dare regulate me"

A sample below of some of my other posts

https://forums.deeperblue.com/thread...-lament.62451/

[ericallen01]

Definitely appreciate this balanced view of a worldwide problem!!

[Capt Terry]

Originally Posted by cdavisdb

BahamaStreaker,
You raise some very good points, with which I have more than a little sympathy. I think, though, that you are pointing the finger away from Bahamians, when the blame lies with all of us, you included. There is absolutely no question that the unrestricted spearing of most any clear water within range of US recreational and semi-commercial divers is a major problem.

Connor-
Bob Reiland, who has been mentioned on CSC, made multiple trips over the years from PB, Fla to the Bahamas in his 1965 21' “Unoho”. (See Unoho under Moesly Seacraft site, 21' Proud Owners.) Carl offered to sell Bob the Miami boat show model instead of the one ordered, because SeaCraft had orders to deliver boats to the U.S. government for use in Viet Nam (to those of us who are old enough to remember that time).
Bushwacker took “Restless Lady” on several of the Reiland trips and I was on 2-3 on friend’s boats. I remember one particular Reiland story where Bob was grousing he had a not-well-known location where he dived and found dinner a number of times until after one trip when he had a Bahamian native with him. On his subsequent visits to that site the fish were pretty depleted. He said he would never make that mistake again!