The following letter to the press was published by The Tribune, July 30, 2010 and is reprinted here with the permission of the author and presents a slightly different view of the issues faced by fishermen in The Bahamas.
Fishing industry problems have been with us for decades
Abner Pinder
I again am very amused by a Press Release by Mr. Ryan Pinder on the Fishing Industry and the problems facing the Fishing Industry in our Bahamas.
Mr. Pinder is trying to make the public believe that these problems have only started under this Administration which he KNOWS full well is as far as East is from West from the TRUTH.
Ryan is in his mid 30's and his family has been involved in the buying of Lobster here in Spanish Wells almost from the very beginning.
No Government has been able to force the Defence Force to do its job of protecting the MARINE RESOURCES of the Bahamas from its inception.
The Defence Force vessels can only be sent out to do its job [which they are] but if the job is not done who is to blame?
It is sad to see someone trying to gain cheap political points in matters of this sort when the problem was there for the entire 5 yrs. that the P L P were in power and even when they were in power before 1992 and I did not hear Mr. Pinder raising hell with them for not doing what needed to be done then.
This Government has started to have a Defence Force base built in Ragged Island which when completed should be a Huge help in stopping the Poachers from Raping our Fishing grounds.
There was an incident with a Spanish Wells fishing boat and a Dominican fishing boat during this summer but the truth of the matter is I was called by satellite phone given the G.P.S. readings of where the incident was taking place and I called a gentleman in the defence force with the information and in about 3 or 4 hours one of the defence force fast boats was on the scene took the Dominicans and brought them to Nassau and they were put in the Detention Center at Carmichael Road.
Truth is that during the P L P 's tenure the economy was supposedly in good shape and nothing was done, however the Ministry of National Security has during this year 2010 done a lot more than has been done in a long time to try and alleviate the problems which fishermen face.
I am not trying in anyway to belittle the problems that exist because they are huge I just would like for when someone complains for it to be unbiased and the same complaints be across the board no matter who the Government is.
Abner inder
Spanish Wells, Eleuthera
Bahamas
