The Politics of Bonefish in Abco
Most of us don’t think about the intersection between bone fishing and politics until we have to. June 17, 2015, has become a day of infamy in flats fishing. it’s the day when the bahamas Department of Marine resources (dMr) rolled out draft legislation that caused panic and uproar in the fly fishing world. it was also a day that many of us became activists as we tried to influence dMr to see the shortcomings of their legislation. and this had to be done in a mere nine-day time period.
Most everyone was stunned by the proposed law, and everyone wanted to know why the dMr was offering this legislation. Confusion reigned. Reading and re-reading the draft only caused more confusion. nobody could understand what it all meant. The bloggers were blogging. The internet was abuzz with speculation. Email threads where flying back and forth among stakeholders.
The DMR received more than 1,500 letters from bahamians and foreigners, from second- homeowners and fishermen, from conservation groups, and from other stakeholders in the nine days leading up to the public consultation. during the public consultation, the flow of ideas and comments and suggestions was impressive, and the amount of the peoples’ requests for clarification was telling. It was very apparent that flats fishing involves many issues and affects far more people than just guides and lodges. a much more in-depth and comprehensive consultation should have transpired before the draft legislation was sprung on an unsuspecting flats fishing industry and our much-valued visitors, all of whom are the economic engine of this tourism sector. Since the rollout of the proposed legislation it has become apparent that the bahamas fly fishing industry association (bffia) was the impetus for this ill-advised and poorly- researched draft legislation. A bit of recent history: The bahamas Ministry of Tourism has always wanted guides to start a national organization to represent our entire $141 million sport-fishing industry. however, under the leadership of a largely ineffective board of directors, nothing much happened during bffia’s first two years, and the Ministry of Tourism’s goals went unmet.
This year 23 Abaconians joined the bffia, along with many other guides and lodge owners throughout the bahamas who were ready for new leadership and anxious to vote for a new board of directors. it was time for the bffia to make a fresh start. we all flew to nassau on June 25th to attend the AGM that was scheduled from 10:45 am with adjournment at 4:00 pm. It did not take long for members to recognize that the jam-packed agenda would not allow time for the election of officers, so motions were made and seconded by members to immediately start the election process. The chairman, however, refused to allow a vote on the motions and plowed on as scheduled, despite repeated pleas from the members. Because several large groups of members from Abaco, grand bahama, and Andros had to catch return flights home, it was necessary for them to leave the meeting at 4:15 pm. as a result, not a single one of those members was afforded the opportunity to vote. A few of the guides who remained were so discouraged with the disorganized and late election process that they did not even vote. in fact, the actual voting didn’t commence until 6:30 pm and the election of the new board was finally announced around 8:00 pm – fully four hours after the meeting was scheduled to adjourn. At the time of the election far fewer than 100 members remained. On July 13th the government tasked the bffia with defining what a “guide” is and what the requirements would be for guiding in the bahamas despite objection from the Abaco fly fishing guides association (affga). The government was advised that the affga does not recognize the bffia as a respected authority or representative of the fly fishing industry because of the total disdain shown to bffia members and the underhanded election practices by the bffia chairman and board during the AGM. Despite this plea, the bffia, a non-governmental organization, remains in this quasi-leadership role and it has now become necessary for legal action against the bffia and the election process. The affga is a bahamian registered non- profit company that was incorporated in 2009. at that time, essentially all of the guides on Abaco island were independent guides and through their hard work and client loyalty they built a flats fishing industry on Abaco with a total economic impact of more than $5 million a year. add to that second-home owner and non-guided angler expenditures and the total economic impact of flats fishing jumps to nearly $21 million a year on abaco. in addition, three high-end fishing lodges opened on abaco in 2009, and that probably adds another $4 million a year to the abaco economy. Today, abaco is a blend of independent guides, lodge guides, hotels, lodges, vacation- home rentals and second-home owners, all of which make up the robust $25 million Abaco bone fishing industry. and that is just a small part of the nationwide $141 million yearly flats fishing economy.
Affga’s mission is to promote a sustainable tourism product for bahamian guides by promoting the conservation of bonefish and the bonefishing flats while preserving bahamian jobs. That means all bahamian jobs, because all of the income from flats fishing trickles down throughout our entire economy. not only for hotels and home rentals and car rentals or taxis and restaurants, bars, and souvenir shops, but for real estate agents, advertising companies, web designers, small shop owners, laborers of all sorts – gardeners, rental managers, marina operators, boat rental operations and boat mechanics, even doctors – and our utility companies.
The flats fishing industry is economically important to all bahamians. The Abaco fly fishing guides association adamantly opposes the draft legislation as proposed and has provided detailed management plans, conservation plans, and suggestions to the dMr. because no one knows what will be in the re-crafted legislation that will be sent to the cabinet for debate, it is imperative that we lobby
all of the Members of parliament so they are aware of our objection to the fisheries resources (Jurisdiction and conservation) (flats fishing) regulations, 2015, and cast a nay vote to prevent any harmful legislation from becoming law. We need your support and would like you to join us as we move forward with our lobbying and legal action. affga has opened its membership world-wide and in the past month has enrolled hundreds of supporting Members, but we need more help. supporting Membership is $10 (or any amount greater that you would like to donate.) please visit our website www. affga.org and become a member today. your support is much needed and greatly appreciated!
To summarize, the affga is opposed
to the proposed flats-fishing legislation
in its present form and it has become necessary to practice politics to try to influence decisions made by officials in the government. we need your support; join www.affga.org so we can all get back to bonefishing in the bahamas!
Cindy Pinder
