The following letter from Mr. Chuck Pinder, a Spanish Wells fisherman was sent to the press and is reprinted here with the permission of the author.
Bahamas Fishing Industry Problems Swept under the Table
Chuck Pinder
I have sat back and waited all summer long to hear what this incompetent government is going to do about the illegal fishing by fishermen from the Dominican Republic. All summer long these foreigners which by the way Bahamas is the off season when crawfish spawn and reproduce these Dominicans have RAPED!!!!! In The Southern Bahamas. Numerous fishing boats out fishing for snapper or repairing traps (condos) have had interaction in which gas bombs were thrown and spear guns were held up at Bahamian Fishermen our own have been shot at by these invaders.
In May a Spanish Wells fishing boat named the Comfort Zone had a battle with them 30 miles in over the southern banks of the Bahamas 5 Dominicans were captured by them and out of 12 dinghies which were seized by our fishermen 540lbs of crawfish and numerous under sized grouper and hog fish were taken with no clue what the big boat had AND THIS WAS IN MAY!!!!!!
These bastards were picked up by The Royal Bahamas Defense Force and carried to Nassau. And do you know where they are now Bahamas they have already been shipped back to the Dominican Republic and have probably been fishing our banks again before we can. These bastards should still be eating Amber Jack in Fox Hill Prison.This is an OUTRAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
TIME AND TIME AGAIN for years we the fishermen of Spanish Wells have passed on information to The Ministry of Fisheries and also The Ministry of Defense. Lately all Crawfish Season long for at least the past two years the sightings of Dominican boats have been increasingly seen all over our southern fishing ground . They are killing our Conch Beds our Grouper and our Crawfish and any other type of bottom fish they can get.
To you our Fisheries Department WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM!!!!!!!!!!! You create laws that you can’t enforce. Take for example THE Grouper Season, you make laws stopping the Bahamian Fishermen from catching grouper and THE DOMINICANS ARE GETTING ALL THEY WANT EVERY YEAR EVERY SEASON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You listen to a bunch of people from foreign countries telling us that our marine life is in trouble. Well you know they are right but it’s in trouble because we allow foreigners to come into our country rape our marine life and then you start with your statistics telling us about the decline in this marine resource or that marine resource .The only problem we are having with our Marine Resources is that you either think you know it all or people in The Department of Marine Resources just don’t care. Maybe it’s time you start listening to the people that do and that would be us the hard working fishermen of this country and I say that coming from the island of Spanish Wells where 95% of the income of our island in dependent on fishing and also it’s the same place when you come here for a Fisheries Meeting YOU TELL US THAT WE ARE TO BEST AT WHAT WE DO.
And to The Ministry of Defense to the hard working Defense Force Officers that have chosen to serve our country I want to say thank you .But to the good Minister may I remind you that under articles of our Constitution you good Sir is mandated by law to protect the people and to guard our Bahamaland from people that wish to harm us poach our waters and also from people that infiltrate our country illegally. And so far This ADMINISTRATION has Failed MISERABLY.
These men and women of our Royal Bahamas Defense Force can’t do their job with the Defense Force Boats parked at PRINCE GEORGE WHARF. The Defense Force has to be vigilant and present in these areas, it’s does very little good to call in and have to leave from Nassau they need to be constantly patrolling the southern Bahama bank to get a grip on what’s going on.
And to you the Government of the Bahamas as a whole you have done more damage to the fishing industry in this country than any other Administration in the history of our country. Just about every branch of government in this country falls in this category first a few years back BEFORE the recession came you took away our Duty Free Tariffs on parts for our fishing boats we used to pay 7% then you changed that to 10% then you took that away and now we pay 65% on parts thank you F.N.M Government.
That was for the Ministry of Finance and now for the Ministry of Immigration AGAIN there are fishing boats tied up to Potters Cay Dock that are fishing in this country that there crew are Dominicans . A Bahamian Fishing boat came in this summer with over 20 thousand pounds of skinned conchs all the crew was nothing but Dominicans; what a disgrace and you want to know why our conch beds are dying out. You can start your immigration clean up out to Potters Cay Dock. And again thank you F.N.M. Government for allowing this to happen.
Wake up BAHAMAS it’s time to clean house as a born and bred Bahamian and proud of it for 43 years and a fishermen for 27 it’s time to rid this country of under the table politics F.N.M’s and P.LP’s alike need to see what we are becoming and that is a country with leaders that if it don’t affect them why bother. We are now being taxed to death by this government that in their last convention said WE GOT THE MONEY. And so I say to you like you asked former Prime Minister Pindling in 1992 WHERE’S THE MONEY?
This government is killing this country by taxing the very people that holds this country together THE MIDDLE CLASS. The poor can’t pay, the rich don’t care and the crooked is going to steal to get what they want, so who suffers THE MIDDLE CLASS. The hard working men and women of this country that struggle to send their children to school, put food on the table, pay their light and water bill and just try to make ends meet.That who is going to end up suffering the most. And once you break the middle class it’s all over then. Once again thank you F.N.M. Government.
I’m a hard working Bahamian Fisherman and I hate to see what our Fishing Industry is becoming, a lost jewel in this great country of ours millions of dollars worth of revenue lost by the Bahamian people stolen by illegal poaching, they come and take what they want when they want and however much they want. And this Administration does little to nothing about it. It just kills me to think what is this country is coming to when we are not willing to step up and take hold of this serious situation. Along with this situation on the 28th and 29th of July is the U.S. mini lobster season and for years that have fished the North Western Bank. Rouge Bahamian Fishermen have been working in that area well before the season opens and very little is being done.
You know Bahamas as you pass Fort Montagu Ramp as a little boy between the ages of 8 and ten years old I stood to the edge of the road holding bunches of fish to sell. Summer time I would go net hauling with my grandfather Mr. Purcell Pinder a descendent from Spanish Wells who was the first man to start selling fish at Montagu Ramp. My other grandfather Mr. Horace Sands was from Abaco and at that same age every August I would go to Great Guana Cay and go spearing CONDOS and that is where I learned to spear crawfish. Yes Ministry of Fisheries CONDOS being used in the Bahamas OVER 30 YEARS AGO.
To my friends and family in Abaco I hope you are reading this in the day or I hope you got a good flash light because I know you don’t have much electricity. Fishing is not just my job it’s in my blood and before I see it spilt for it, it’s high time that the government of this country do something about it. I hope you listening Mr. Christie because I feel sure that if you are listening and are willing to fix what’s broke all I got to say is IT AIN’T LONG NOW!!!!!
Former leaders have come and gone. Former Opposition leaders have come and gone in my 43 years all I’ve got to say is I don’t care which party you are for if you don’t do your job IT’S TIME FOR YOU TO GO!!!!!!!! It’s time that we as a country stop playing party politics and keep the government on their toes. In my work place fishermen are suffering and we are suffering because of incompetence. I pray to the Good Lord that we find the people in this country willing to make a stand and say to whatever party enough is enough. Thank you for your time and may God Bless You and May God Bless the Commonwealth of The Bahamas.
Chuck Pinder
Spanish Wells, Bahamas
July 27th 2010
Alot of what Chuck says in this letter is very true it is just a shame that it is so political because none of this is new it has been going on for 40yrs.but I do not remember hearing about any of this during the 5yrs. that the PLP were in power. I am convinced in my mind there is something very SMELLY about the decisions that have been made over the years by the hierachy of the defence force and I do not believe it has had anything to do with who ever the Minister was at any particulr time.
A prime example is = I know a gentleman who was Captain of one of the defence force vessels and in a about 2 years he made more POACHING arrests than had been made in the previous 10 years, he was without reason moved from being a Captain and put on shore duty WHY ? Was it because he was interefering with some one elses pocket getting filled?
This good gentleman quit the defence force because of this and now works in the private sector.
Controlling the Poaching in the Bahamas is one of the easiest Jobs that the defence force has to do it only has to want to be done . I personally could put a stop to all of it in ONE YEAR.
There are a lot of very GOOD officers in the defence force but it is like all other Government Ministries there are also a lot of CROOKED people who sell theirs and their childrens and grandchildrens BIRTH RIGHTS for a Measly few Dollars with no concern about the FUTURE.
Mr Abner Pinder, from your recent letters in The Tribune, one would assume that you are a strong supporter of the FNM. Your letters show strong partisan support, as if the FNM can do no wrong. However, I have one simple statement here. If you can solve this problem in one year, The PM would be a fool not to immediately appoint you as Chief Marine Enforcement Officer. If needed, bring in a team of outside support to overcome the corruption. I am sure the fisherman of this country, including non-fisherman such as myself, would assist in raising money to pay you a salary since the Country cannot afford it. I strongly recommended that you seek an audience with the PM to move this forward.
I second that Jerome.
Hi Jerome:
It is patently clear that both Pinder’s are partisans.
The question in my mind is which one is being intellectually dishonest?
We all know it has been going on for years.
Will something be done before a Spanish Wells boat or DR boat is sunk?
Not to mention the Bahamian poachers.
Jerome I make no apology for my political loyalties . I believe anyone in the Bahamas that knows me would know that.I am in no way taking up for this government for what is happening on the fishing grounds,[ if you read my letter you would know that] I was only pointing out to the Public at large that RYAN WAS TRYING TO MAKE IT SOUND AS IF THIS PROBLEM ONLY STARTED IN 2007 which is PURE UNADULTERATED B. S.
I was shot at by cubans from Miami 44 yrs. ago in the area of Great Isaccs Lighthouse and made to throw all of the Lobster in our fishing boat on board the cuban boat and we reported it and nothing was ever done about it.
So you see where I am coming from ,it did not start in 2007.
When this gov. does something which I believe is wrong I am the first one to tell them what I think about it.
I am a Bahamian first and foremost and whatever is best for the Bahamas and its people I stand for and if you don’t believe me ask my good friend Perry Christie and he will confirm it.
I catch hell daily because I do as much for PLP’s as I do for FNM’s but it makes no difference to me as long as someone is a Bahamian we all have the same rights.
I trully enjoyed reading Chuck Pinder’s letter.
It speaks volumes to the problems our national leaders have not given priority or any attention. This is evident in both Government Administrations. It is letters as such that we pray get the national attention and are acted upon legally and in the best interest of our Nation. Reading it, I can honestly feel the anger and the pain, and as a Bahamian, I do hope that we can fix this situation as it is an industry that seem to not be protected by anybody except “lip service”! Good letter and let us all work together to correct this situation.
For the life of me, I don’t understand why this government or any other government in the Bahamas,have just chosen to ignore this problem.What in the hell is wrong with these people.They will continue to pump our money, yes our money into nonsense like ZNS, a loosing cause & yet something as important as this they refuse to at least try & deal with.We have to have someone brought in, maybe the US coast guard or someone like that.There is far to much corruption in the Bahamas to effectively deal with it.Anyone with any sense at all can look and see that the corruption is causing most of our problems, problems with the police & problems with the RBDF.If its not corruption, its pure incompetence,maybe a combination of both & that is a major problem.Lets have some common sense here, it is very clear to me that we can not deal with this problem because we do not want to.
hello goodday everyone.i am an avid opponent of illegall poaching and also dominican fishermen working on bahamain fishing boats.when our season is over they come in our waters and poch the conch beds and the grouper schools.i have personally gone down to the dr and done some special operation work the and have identified the poaching organizations that make millions of dollars in our waters.they have become legends in the dr.the food stores and shops have lobster ,fish and conch that are illegally caught in bahamain waters.i have personally been on missions that have interdicted and arrested poaching vessels from dr ,honduras and belize.the same fishermen who work in the bahamas during our season go back home and when our season closes they are back on the big poachin moter ships working the banks.this is going to become really heated because the harder the product becomes to find the more the pressure is going to be on.we must as a country stop the dominicans from first of all working here in the bahamas.i know we have persons who are trained and will work beut the greedy persons who are financing these trips are only looking at profit and then the give the workers peanuts.i wonder if mr.cartwright wants to put forth a resolution that outlaws dominican divers and boat captains like coco and willy and miguel from working these waters.i do know that if it does not stop a war will happen on these high seas.they have already wiped out the ground int thier country why should we have to suffer because of greedy people in hig places.i have been an active member of the special operations unit in the military and know that our best is not being done especially when it comes to poaching.the legal system is apiece of crap also.the department od fisheries director and his cronies all need to be changed out for a more active and agressive director who is not afraid of any country.the government needs to go to the president of dr,and tell him if his people are caught they will be jailed and also tell them not to fish in our waters.a like might have to be taken to show people how serious out there is.if this was drugs i bet every tom,dick and harry would try to stop it orget some.sometimes i do nor know which side we are working for the poachers or the country.one day when we can find conch or fish i hope we all won’t say i told ya so.yesterday at potters cay i counted fiftyfour domincan fishermen who just came in off the gulf knight.this vessal is owned by a domincan who is married to a bahamain for financial reasons.the crawfish was purchase by paradise fisheries and to the amazment of all the bahamain fishermen who were apart of the crew said that they caught more than the dominican counterparts.we are just as good as the or even better.a man is just a man but the reason why they are considered so formiable is that they are rapers of the sea.they kill everything and also litter the sea bed with empty conch shells.they are the villest things that have hit the seas that we call the bahamas.all i need is one operational atteack craft and i know where to attack them.i know the fishing grounds where they fish and also know how they think.i speak spanish fleuntly and listen to them over the ssb talking about thier plans .bahamas wake up ,or we will be invaded ……maybe we have been already.don’t worry about the chinese coming worry about the ones who are here already.
I am not a fisherman, like the other individuals in this blog. Nevertheless, it is pathetic that, our Bahamian fishermen lives and livelihood are threaten on a daily basis.
This is not an issue of white Bahamian or Black Bahamian, PLP or FNM; this is about BAHAMIANS….PERIOD. These men leave their wives and families at home, whilst still within their homeland, they are being threaten by outsiders, who have no legal rights in this place and are still breaking our laws.
Chuck Pinder is right; This lousy administration (not to exclude the past or future administrations) seems incapable of manning our waters and protecting our citizens. Since we are not at war with anyone, why cant we have the RBDF out there, along with helicopters, planes with radars, to scout our waters and make sure our fishermen are not only protected but have safe passage wherever they want to go.
The other day, Hon. Ryan Pinder said, its too costly for us to have AWACS (radar planes) to scout our territory. I think that’s absolute nonsense. I am sure, these fishermen would be happy to contribute to a government fund, where the money is being used to supply RBDF with the kind of equipment to protect our boarders. Mr. Ryan Pinder said, ‘forget about purchasing them, they are in the hundreds of millions of dollars’….well, we are loosing hundreds of millions to poachers already. And, if our fishermen can keep that same catch that the Dominican’s are stealing, they would make the hundreds of millions to help defray the cost of these expensive radar planes. I just don’t believe, nothing can be done.
And, the fact that they, the Dominicans, get a slap on the wrist when they appear before our courts, seems to smell of, diplomatic back scratching to me. If any of our fishermen are caught catching lobster out of season, they will not see the light of day, after appearing in front of our judges. This is sickening and the Bahamian people are tired of it and will rise up soon and revolt in some form or another….see what’s happening in the UK now?
Nuff said, The Ingraham Administration ought to step up to the plate and do something drastic to protect our men from Spanish Wells. I pray God’s protection and blessing on the Bahamians from Spanish Wells.
Perry DeCosta
Thanks for stopping by and commenting Mr. DeCosta.
I suspect Mr. Pinder might be right about the cost of the radar planes. There are also the attendant maintenance costs, pilots.
And these costs have to be paid by us, the taxpayer as there is no storehouse of money the government can get money from.
In addition our waters are so vast they can’t be every where all the time.
Like illegal immigration, this is a tough nut to crack and all the politicos, law enforcement agencies and fishermen etc need to sit down and see if something can be done to minimise the damage being done by the poachers.
I think the cost of the planes is small compared to the cost of the Bahamian fishermens livelihood.It seems money can be found for all the nonsense in the world like Bahamasair & ZNS but not for the important things like this.Come on now, the government just needs to prioritize on these things & it can be done.
I agree on B-Air and ZNS etc
Why not price them out to see?
It’s doubtful we would be willing to be taxed more to pay for them.
I’m not by the way.
I am a united states citizen. I have some experiance fishing on a dragger back here in Maine. I want to come down there and work for some Bahamaian fishermen. I am a great worker. Does anyone have any openings? Thanks a lot. Ryan