They also addressed the issue of American employees from the Atlantic Undersea Test & Evaluation Center (AUTEC) fishing near the base. Local media were granted a second tour of the facilities and given an overview of operations on Thursday.
Officer-in-Charge, Commander Rick Lovell, flat out denied the claim that there was no fishing allowed near the base.
“That is not true,” he said, adding that no local fisherman had called him to say they were prohibited from fishing anywhere area.
“There is no policy to tell any Bahamian they can’t fish anywhere,” AUTEC administrators stated. Last April, during the first tour of the base, protesters put together 36 questions they wanted answered. Within the inquiry, they wanted to know why they were not permitted to fish near the base and asked if AUTEC owned the nearby ocean. The residents all agreed that they were in the dark about the base’s operations. There was also a question of Americans fishing and exporting their catch in competition with local fishermen.
To those claims Commander Lovell said, “Our country agreement specifically prohibits us from competing with the local economy in any way, so we do not allow anyone to sell any of the fish they catch.”
Further, he said, “You cannot charter your boat. Your boat is your own personal boat and its for you own personal use. You can take your friends out, but you can’t charter that [the boat] in a commercial way.”
Commander Lovell said American employees on the base police themselves and ensure that no one goes afoul of the rules of the agreement in place.
“The local limit of lobster is six per person, per day,” he explained. He said they aggressively ensure that rules are followed, “because they don’t want there to be an issue with that.” He said there is complete compliance with Bahamian laws. “A lot of the Autecians who live and work here, they are almost self-described environmentalists. They love living here because of the beauty of the base.”
Since April 1984, AUTEC has paid the government $10.8 million annually for use of the location.
By: JIMENITA SWAIN, The Nassau Guardian
