A really interesting video about Andros… from the crabs to the sponges to the fisheries. Worth a watch, even if PS does make a couple brief appearances.
Archives
12
Feb 18
King, Ansil Saunders and Bimini
A cool story, if you haven’t heard it already, about Dr. King’s trip to Bimini, going out with guide Ansil Saunders.
I had not heard about the bust of Dr. King out there in the mangroves. That’s kind of cool, I think.
22
Dec 17
Imagine the Bahamas without conch
It isn’t hard to imagine. I know I’ve seen conch too small to be legally harvested make their way to the shell piles. Here’s a story about measures being proposed to preserve the conch fishery into the future. There is something here about illegal foreign poachers, but all that damage you’d want done could be done by Bahamians themselves as they respond the a huge demand.
Cracked
China is circling the Bahamas, looking for fresh seafood to feed their billion+ people and I bet they’d like some nice conch fritters.
Florida lost their conch. Will the Bahamas follow them?
I hope not. I really hope not. I hope strong measures are taken (and FOLLOWED) in the Bahamas to keep the conch around for generations.
01
Nov 17
Bahamas Regs – FFS Edition
And it just never stops.
So… Fly Fishing Chief says the sky is falling and those “special interests” are behind it. Something like that comes from this story about the possibility that the fly fishing regs put in place earlier this year could be tanked.
I mean… am I the only one who thinks the guy has something in common with Trump? He says “Watch out for special interests!” only because, ya know, he’s got his own special interests he’s interested in peddling?
He proclaims the ecology of the flats as under-threat and a sacred thing and then he bulldozes a bunch of mangroves to put in a fuel station.
He decries the poor handling of bonefish by the unwashed DIY anglers, literally saying poor handling was decimating bonefish stocks, and then does crap like this?
Mr Conservation, demonstrating proper handling of a bonefish.
The fly fishing regs were brought about purely through PLP channels, excluding and ridiculing all other voices. The legislation was brought in through back channels, not through a vote in the Parliament, where it never would have succeeded.
Then, this weird thing happened. The PLP got their asses handed to them in the recent elections. The FNM won. With such changes there were bound to be changes in the fishing regs, maybe keeping the one or two good ideas in the regs and getting rid of the protectionist tripe that comprised the rest of it. I mean… did anyone think anything else was going to happen? I’m just wondering what took so long.
Let the Emperor of Bad Ideas complain. He’s like a walking sermon of contradictions and hypocrisy. How anyone is still listening to that guy is beyond me. He can’t be the guy to carry the flag for the Bahamian fly fishing industry and I can’t wait until more Bahamians actually catch on to that.
07
Oct 17
A little round up of stuff floating around out there
First, congrats to Yellow Dog’s Jim Klug who recently landed the 2017 Izaak Walton Award given by the The American Museum of Fly Fishing. I’ve had the pleasure of fishing with Jim. He’s solid. Last year’s award winner was super-talented artist and author James Prosek.
Jim + Cuba + Cameras
Second, hope you like that water taxi ride to Caye Caulker, cuz, you aren’t going to be flying there for a while. They are reconstructing the runway on Caye Caulker, ruling that out as a “by air” option for a while. My daughter and I took the ferry/taxi from Belize City last year. It was pretty easy. One of my bags went missing for a couple hours but they assured me they don’t lose bags and they didn’t. Got everything back with only a minor delay. We’ll be heading back in April and we’ll do it by boat again.
Third, and last, more stirrings from the Bahamas as Bahamian guides and lodge owners are complaining about a substantial drop in business, blaming outfitters/booking agents. Talking to some American lodge owners out there over the past year they tell me business is good, but they are working hard for that business. Lots of dollars put into marketing. I’ve seen the uptick in social media presence that would back that up. There is something like a “it takes money (and time) to make money” thing here. There are also some economic headwinds with Bahamian tourists spending 28% less now than they did in 2000. Add to that a season full of hurricanes that likely scared off some tourists and, ya know… people aren’t just going to come on their own. Licenses are still needed and still not available on-line. A lot of angler resentment still exists due to the push by the BFFIA. Add all that up and, yeah, business would be down.
21
Jul 17
The cost of getting there
There was a recent story that caught my eye talking about how the Bahamian tourism industry is losing out due to the high cost of getting to the Islands.
This has been my experience.
From Abaco, 2015.
A few years back I brought the whole family to Abaco for Spring Break. We found a great place and booked it and then looked at flights. WOW. Ended up costing us $1,400 a person to get to Abaco on the days we wanted at the times we wanted. $1,400 a person. That’s too high. This year I took my daughter to Belize and airfare was about $600 (and would have been $450 if I had booked earlier).
It costs too much to get to the Bahamas. I won’t take a family trip there if it costs me $5,600 just to plant my feet on the ground with my family of 4.
A quick look right now shows if I wanted to get to Abaco in September from the SF Bay Area it would cost $800-900.
With the same dates a trip to Cancun is just over $400.
Havana – $452
Honolulu – $504
Miami – $330
Puerto Rico – $691
Belize City – $630
Seychelles – $1,400
Cayman Islands – $616
Oddly… Congo Town (South Andros) from $493… but up to $700 when you want only one stop.
The travel costs are a barrier. I don’t know what has to be done about it, but I’d agree with the article. It doesn’t help and it doesn’t capitalize on the close proximity of the Bahamas to the US. Hoping to get back to the Bahamas in 2018… and hoping not to break the bank on airfare when I do.
12
May 17
Those that don’t get it will likely continue not to get it
Thanks Geneva… you continue to illustrate so many points so effectively.
This is the sort of crap that gets spouted back when you make a case against the fly fishing regs put forward by the PLP and BFFIA (Gray and Smith). Let’s delve in, shall we?
- “you can see firsthand, them attempting to have reversed the flyfishing legislation that was currently passed” – The regulations never went for a vote in the full Parliament and it is easy to see why. They would have lost. So, they cut some inside deals to get it through the Cabinet without it having to get a full airing… so, no, it wasn’t passed, it was weaseled through in the least transparent way possible.
- “afforded Bahamians rights and control of an industry in their best interest and enjoyment for Locals and Foreigners“ – No, the regulations intended to give control of the industry only to a few Bahamian, cut out large swaths of Bahamians and directly attacked the interests and wishes of foreign anglers (also known as the folks who, with their tourist dollars are responsible for their being a fly fishing tourist economy).
- DO WE HAVE A SAY IN THEIR FLYFISHING LAWS? CAN WE GO IN ANY FOREIGN COUNTRY AND DO AS WE WANT? – If our laws were enacted specifically to punish Bahamian tourists, I’d expect you to have a say. If the fly fishing economy was dependent on Bahamian tourists you’d be damn sure we’d listen to input from Bahamian tourists. Also… you can come to Florida or California or Montana and, with a license, you can fish any bit of public water you want according to the regulations, which are generally set on scientific grounds. There are very, very few restrictions and no rules about training or licensing by non-governmental entities like the BFFIA.
- “That being said we must fight to ensure that the Flyfishing Legislation remains. Let your Members of Parliament, their Generals and others know that “Hell NO! It’s the People Time and the legislation is in our best interest and NOT to be touched!” – This is funny because this whole thing was rammed through PLP channels to the exclusion of pretty much any other viewpoint and it was a disaster. It alienated fly fishing tourists. It split the Bahamian fly fishing community down the middle. It was a disaster of the first order… in premise and in execution. It was also so totally partisan that you’d have to expect it to get dropped immediately with a change in leadership. Every time Gray sat in a meeting he made an enemy.
And so here are the lessons for the FNM when it comes to regulating the fly fishing industry.
- Listen – Listen to everyone, even folks like good ole’ Prescott and his lady friend Geneva. It never felt like Gray and Prescott listened to anyone. They didn’t adopt any of the good ideas brought forward by the guides from Abaco, or the conservation leaders at the BTT or folks like Perk Perkins at Orvis. They paid lip service to listening and to collaboration and the end product was, most people would agree, a steaming pile of crap.
- Execute in a non-partisan way – If you want regulations to last, they need to pass the smell test and be seen as not FNM or PLP regulations. Make it work. You have 5 years to make it work. Get the training done through Tourism, if you need it. Get guide licensing done, if you need it, through an independent and non-partisan entity.
- Be clear about your aims and don’t deceive – A huge problem with the BFFIA’s approach was that there were a LOT of contradictory messages put out there. The first draft directly attacked foreign owned lodges and there were many elements of drafts that went after DIY anglers, all while being denied despite being there in black and white and being mentioned in side conversations all over the Bahamas. It all led to a real feeling that these guys couldn’t be trusted. At one point it was allll about conservation, except it never really was ever about conservation. It was always about power and economics and about control and also always in the most dodgy of ways. So… be trustworthy. Be better than what we witnessed over the past couple years.
- There are some good ideas – Very, very few people are opposed to a license fee. It just needs to be easy to get. A guy coming in on a Friday into Marsh Harbor has a hard time getting a license when the Administrator’s office closes at 1:00 and won’t be open until Monday. Is that guy supposed to not fish over the weekend? Of course not. So, take the good parts and make them work. A fund for conservation? Great. Just don’t have the money go to Prescott’s sham of a nonprofit. Limits on mother-ship operations? 95% of anglers would get behind that, but don’t make it illegal for a guy to take out his buddy when he’s paid to get his boat in the country, bought a home and put tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars into the Bahamian economy.
I look forward to seeing where things go. I’m optimistic, which is something I haven’t been able to say about the Bahamas for a couple years.
12
May 17
And just like that… it’s gone.
Photo by Cameron Miller down at Andros South.
Man… after all that BS, it looks like the new regulations will just go away. Poof. Like Keyser Soze.
I am the Chairman of the Central & South Abaco branch of the Free National Movement. During the campaign, our candidate (and now Member of Parliament) James Albury made it clear that one of our first priorities would be to remove these wretched regulations. If there need to be regulations, they will be put into place after proper consultations with all members of the Bonefishing industry and not in any great haste. But we will not accept the new government waiting to remove the existing ones. With Gray gone, we will be having early conversations with the new Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries. Of that you can be most assured.
What a crazy turn of events. Prescott Smith comes to power in the BFFIA with some PLP help/money, makes this crazy scheme his number one priority, sews discord all over the fly fishing community, alienates thousands of anglers from around the world and then the PLP get absolutely trounced in elections and the new govt will just scrap the whole thing.
This is certainly a good turn of events for the Bahamas. Just have to hope that the anglers return and the animosity gets paved over (just not in a “Indian burial ground” kind of way).
I don’t know when things will officially be rescinded, but it seems like it will happen soon.
I think almost all of us were in favor of a license fee so long as it actually went towards preserving the resources and not into some political account or back pocket. So, I hope the license is revived in a way that is a positive for the fishery.
It seems like there is an opening here to do some positive things, for anglers, for Bahamians and for the fishery.
I’m optimistic.
10
May 17
Great news for the Bahamas… the PLP is out!
mmmmm
Ah… politics. Bahamian politics, to be exact.
National elections were held in the Bahamas on Wednesday and the results are in. It was a landslide for the FNM. That means the PLP is out, and with them will be Minister Gray and the influence of Prescott Smith. The people of the Bahamas have spoken and it turns out, they don’t much care for those guys either.
Fantastic news.
Now… what will this mean for the Bahamian fishing regulations? I don’t rightly know. One thing I’d guess at would be the Abaco Fly Fishing Guide Association would, at the very least, get equal footing to the BFFIA and the special status of Prescott Smith will come to an end, as he was a PLP flunky from start to finish anyway. Prescott recently got a marina deal in Andros, so maybe he is done trying to ruin the entire Bahamian fly fishing economy and will, instead, run that little marina into the ground.
The license, in and of itself, isn’t a bad idea. So maybe an administration who would be interested in making it work might get an on-line system set up.
I might also expect the provisions of the legislation which were so punitive for second home-owners and non-Bahamian boat owners might also be ditched.
Regulations forcing a Bahamian to buy a license to bonefish are something I’d expect to go away.
But… who knows? We’ll have to watch this new administration and see what their plans are. With unemployment reported at 17% or so, and Baha Mar billions in the hole, they have some bigger fish to fry. When we get indications on which way things are going, I’ll be sure to let you know.
Hooray for Democracy!
24
Mar 17
Flashback to a perfect moment in Grand Bahama from a few years back
It was a slow day. The guide my dad and I went out with had an old boat, a bit worse for wear, and his eyes appeared to be going. He was having a heck of a time finding fish. I got out of the boat to wade across a point, I think because the boat was scrapping bottom and it was easier to pole if I got out.
Then… as I was wading, I saw a couple fish moving along the shore-line.
