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Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Virgin Islands: Only 9 Gillnetters; Fighting Tooth & Nail Against a Reasonable Buyout
DPNR to soon begin enforcing gill and trammel net fishing ban
By LYNN FREEHILL
Wednesday, April 2nd 2008
http://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/index.pl/article_home?id=17622664

Leaders of the V.I. Department of Planning and Natural Resources have not backed down from a decision to begin enforcing a 2006 ban on gill and trammel net fishing, even though that position cost the gubernatorial administration a political appointee.

V.I. Fish and Wildlife Division director David Olsen's resignation over the issue took effect Monday. The division's chief of wildlife, Judy Pierce, took over as acting director on Tuesday.

Olsen, who held the position since Gov. John deJongh Jr. appointed him in January 2007, said he has no regrets about leaving. "The governor asked me, 'Would you really quit over nine fishermen?' and I said yes," he said.

DPNR Commissioner Robert Mathes said he intends to begin enforcing the gill net ban within weeks.

But first, Mathes said, he will distribute $55,000 among the nine St. Croix fishermen who use the method. The money, which comes from a federal grant, is designed to reimburse them for their nets. The amount that each fisherman will receive depends on the amount of fish he reported catching during the previous year; the highest total set to be granted to any one fisherman is $14,000.

Gill and trammel nets are wide, weighted stationary nets that entangle fish while grounded to the ocean floor. Around St. Croix, the nets often are placed in strategic locations along fish travel routes. The method is not used around St. Thomas.

The nets can catch large numbers of fish quickly. But they also have come under fire from scientists and environmentalists. Opponents charge that the nets snag a harmful amount of bycatch, including noncommercial species like sharks, turtles, reef fish, coral and sponges.

St. Croix fisherman Gerson Martinez, who uses the nets, said bycatch is unavoidable. "There's bycatch in any type of fishing, and there's nothing we can do about it."

Martinez said he spent $10,000 in the last year to try other gear, but nothing works as fast and effectively as gill and trammel nets. Fishpots and other gear must be left in the water for a while and can be disturbed by boats, while fishermen can stay with the nets and haul up their catch right away.

The fishermen, he said, are willing to make some concessions, such as using larger mesh openings to let more bycatch pass through, and reducing net length from 1,600 feet to 1,200 feet.

But Martinez said he cannot accept the ban or the grant money. "There's a livelihood here not only for nine fishermen, but helpers, cleaners, restaurants and small businesses that we supply," he said. "I believe it's unfair that the government comes and shuts us down."

The prohibition on gill and trammel net fishing was signed by Gov. Charles Turnbull in 2006, after several years of discussion among fishermen, scientist, fisheries managers and other interested parties. Such nets were banned in federal waters in the Caribbean in 2005. The local ban and other changes in regulation were supported largely by local fishermen that year as a compromise to avoid year-round closures of some areas because of overfishing.

The deJongh administration decided not to enforce the ban for six months in order to give fishermen the chance to find a senator to sponsor legislation that would supersede the regulation, Mathes said. The commissioner looked to legislation rather than writing a new regulation himself out of respect to the amount of work that had gone into drafting the prohibition, he said.

"They spent several years arriving at that piece of regulation, so it wasn't anything that was a surprise," Mathes said. "I gave the fishermen every possibility to get the law changed, and nothing happened."

Sen. Carmen Wesselhoft had expressed an interest in sponsoring such legislation, but so far no bill has moved forward. On Tuesday, Wesselhoft said she remains interested, but the bill has been held up in the Legislature's Office of Legal Counsel. She could not give specifics of what the bill would entail.

Meanwhile, the administration has begun searching within the territory for a new Fish and Wildlife Division director, Government House spokesman Jean Greaux Jr. said, and hopes to have a new leader in place by summer.

http://www.ccapnw.org

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