Fishermen warn that there is a lack of fish this Easter season

It will be difficult for customers to find fish for Good Friday because fishermen cannot clear enough due to a compressor ban that disables them from clearing fishing nets. National Fisheries Association (NFA) President Keith Carroll told Guardian Business yesterday that the government needs to relax the policy on fishermen using compressors for fishing during the period of April 1 to July 31, so they can clear nets that would allow them to bring in more fish. “Fishermen are not allowed to carry compressors on their boats once the crawfish season closes,” said Carroll.

“That means when fishermen are hauling in snappers and stuff, and they don’t have compressors, they can’t go down to clear their nets. They need the compressor on board to clear their nets, but they are not allowed to carry compressors on board.” The ban on compressors was done to stop fishermen from harvesting crawfish out of season, so that they can regenerate for the following season.



“We’ve been telling the government that they are not the ones that are out there fishing. They don’t know what the guys need, but yet again they don’t listen to the fishermen. It’s just like using a computer in the office, a compressor is a part of a fisherman’s toolbox, they can’t fish without it.

” When the Royal Bahamas Defense Force seizes a boat with an illegal compressor on board, that boat is confiscated until the case is cleared in court, which can sometimes take years. “There just won’t be any snappers for Easter this year. All of the major boats I know that bring in snappers, they are home.

They don’t go out to sea because they are not allowed to carry their compressor,” Carroll noted. He added: “You have to blame the government for that, because the fishermen tell them what they need, and they won’t listen.” Marco Nicholls, owner of Marco’s Seafood, said he had no snappers at his fish house because his suppliers have not been bringing them in.

“The hardest thing for us now is snapper. Snappers are very scarce.” Nicholls also said: “As well as the availability of snappers, the overall price of fish has risen, because of different things like the price of diesel.

Bahamian people like to wait until the last minute, and that causes higher prices. The more the demand is, the higher the price. He added: “Snappers are the fastest selling fish, and the season just started with the groupers, so groupers are in between, they are moving but not as fast.

“I have been in this business for many years, and for me the sales are not as good as they were in previous years.” Nicholls added that there are a lot of unlicensed fish vendors on the streets now, which is also is a problem with the scarcity of fish at the fish houses. “You have some guys that just pull up on the side of the road.

That’s a big problem now,” he said..