BIMINI, Bahamas — ESPN2 television fishing show host George Poveromo, two friends and I enjoyed a single glorious day of fishing just before the onset of heavy rain squalls spinning off from Tropical Storm Arlene.
Trolling a conventional rig with wire line and a “Gruwa” lure from Capt. Harry’s Fishing Supply, I caught a 13-pound red grouper in 38 feet of water off Ocean Cay — about a 24-mile run south of Bimini. The grouper was followed up by 30 yellowtails up to two pounds caught by the four of us anchored and chumming in 55 feet of water.
But the fish of the day was retired Hialeah race car driver Bobby Brack’s 30-pound black grouper caught on a bottom rig baited with half a yellowtail.
“He took me by surprise,” Brack said.
Jim Hanrahan hooked what we suspected was another grouper of similar size, but it broke the handle off the reel before he could bring it off the bottom.
Our catch, served at a cookout that night at the Bimini Big Game Club, was typical of the healthy, vibrant reef fishery in this tiny chain of islands 50 miles east of Miami. But these much-prized marine resources are in peril from a number of sources, including development, overfishing and a proposed liquefied natural-gas pipeline to be buried in the ocean floor.
AIRING IT OUT
“I’d like to bring to the table tourism and fisheries [officials] and individuals who are concerned and some of the fishing groups over here,” said Earl Miller of the Bahamas Tourist Office in Broward County. “I think it helps when these things are aired out.”
Agreed Michael Braynen, the Bahamas’ director of fisheries: “I think such a thing could be useful.”
Poveromo can’t wait to tell Bahamas officials what he thinks about fish traps. Illegal in Florida waters, the baited wire cages are used throughout the Bahamas, except in areas designated marine parks. Poveromo wishes they were banned everywhere.
“It’s ridiculous how many they’re putting because you see what happened in South Florida when they still had them,” Poveromo said. “They kill everything; they’re indiscriminate. Say a trap buoy gets cut or a storm moves it, it just keeps killing.”
Braynen said there are no plans to ban fish traps in the immediate future. He said Bahamas law regulates wire mesh size and requires a biodegradable panel so that fish are not trapped indefinitely.
“It’s not one of the items that’s a high priority for us at the present time,” Braynen said. “What we want to be able to do is make sure the existing rules are enforced.”
Existing rules include a nationwide ban on longlining; however, enforcement is difficult at best in a nation of hundreds of scattered islands covering 100,000 square miles of waters.
Legal in the Bahamas but banned in Florida is the use of stab nets around reefs and wrecks. Captain Bouncer Smith of Miami Beach said one of his customers was fishing on a wreck near Bimini when a crew of commercial fishermen set a stab net around his boat.
The fishermen reportedly drew the net around the wreck, sent divers down to scare fish into the mesh, then lifted it up over the wreck so that the bottom pursed, catching numerous fish of all sizes.
Besides overfishing, Bimini’s near-shore fishing grounds have been affected by the gradual construction over the past several years of the Bimini Bay development on the north end of the island. Mangroves and seagrass beds have been lost to the construction of town houses and dredging for the marina.
Future plans call for a casino and golf course.
PROTECTED AREA
Even before construction commenced, proposals were floated to create a marine protected area that included the adjacent Bimini Sound. Though never implemented, Braynen said it still could happen.
“Before too long and before the place changes too much, we hope to get that marine protected area in place and fully operational,” he said. “Whether it’s too late or not is open for debate.”
A liquefied natural-gas pipeline that would run from Ocean Cay to Dania Beach is one of three proposed pipeline projects approved by U.S. officials but not by the Bahamas government. Opponents fear an undersea pipeline would damage coral reefs and seagrass beds and be vulnerable to terrorism or accidental spillage.
Recreational fishers are not without blame in the overall picture. Many illegally spear fish while diving with scuba tanks or use hook-and-line gear to take more fish than either Florida or Bahamas laws allow. That sort of overfishing prompted the requirement that U.S. divers and anglers land all fish in whole condition so marine law-enforcement officers can determine the species.
Keeping a favorite international fishing destination healthy and productive is a challenge, according to Miller.
‘Every meeting I go to, [Bahamas officials] say, `We want more boaters,’ ” he said. “But then the more policing you have to do.”
Susan Cocking, The Miami Herald
