Government is still refusing to admit whether it intends to push longline fishing as a commercial venture.

As reported in Saturday's The Royal Gazette, a planning application by the Department of Environmental Protection suggests Government wants fishermen to explore the potential of the 200-mile Economic Exclusion Zone (EEZ).

For the past year, Government has remained mum on the results of a feasibility study into commercial longline fishing in these waters.

Said a spokesman yesterday: "We will be making comments on the fishing facility and longlining at a future date."

Environmentalists however, say longline fishing is harmful to wildlife.

While longlining has little destructive impact on bottom habitats compared to other techniques such as bottom trawling, the hooks in the lines result in by-catch.

Seabirds, turtles, marlin and sharks are just some of the casualties of the commercial fishing technique. Lines can be 80- to 100-km long and can contain tens of thousands of hooks.

Said fisherman Andrew Marshall: "I think most places in the world that have longlining are trying to get rid of it, so I don't know why we would want to introduce it.

"We have had longlining with foreign boats with permits within our EEZ, and they have to give information back to the Fisheries Department.

"But I don't think it's going to create an industry for locals because on average you're out for three weeks at a time in all sorts of weather.

"And one of the problems for Bermuda is the volume of fish you catch, you can't sell locally. To export it also costs a lot of money, as you need a lot of ice and fuel. Fish in the US is half the price."

Asked whether he agreed with a possible expansion of longline fishing, commercial fisherman Andrew Rance, told The Royal Gazette: "I think if it was a locally-owned fishing project then yes, but as far as foreign vessels coming into our territory, no."

Audubon Society president Andrew Dobson said his organisation had expressed its concerns regarding longline fishing in Bermuda to Government back in 2007.

"We still await a direct response from the Ministry. We also await the promised Ministry report on the longline fishing trials in Bermuda.

"Our specific concerns centred on by-catch issues. We were not convinced that the Ministry was aware of the passage of thousands of seabirds through Bermuda waters each year.

"We were particularly concerned about the likely drowning of seabirds, dolphins, turtles and 'unwanted' fish species.

"This is a real problem. Worldwide, 26 species of seabird, including 17 species of albatrosses, are in danger of extinction because of the deaths caused by longlining."

He added: "There are many mitigation measures that can be employed to reduce the by-catch and we outlined these to the Ministry.

"However, when most countries in the world are realising the terrible impact that longlining has on wildlife, and are taking steps to ban it, we find it unfortunate that our Government is embarking on the longlining venture."

Worldwide renowned conservationist Dr. Callum Roberts, author of the 'The Unnatural History of the Sea', said yesterday: "Although many countries go longline fishing and it can be lucrative, it is also an industry that is killing itself slowly through over-exploitation."

The professor from the UK's York University, who gave a public lecture at BUEI last year, added: "In Bermuda, longlining by other nations under Bermudian licence has already depleted populations of large open ocean fish species.

"Far from there being a 'gold mine' of fish to capture, fish stocks have already been depleted.

"I would strongly urge the Bermudian Government not to reintroduce longline fisheries into its waters.

"It will lead to serious impacts on wildlife populations and a significant likelihood of economic hardship and possibly collapse of the nearshore sport fishery."