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!
