Dear Sir,

Every few months there is a flurry of public discourse on the use/protection of our marine environment. This seems to be a healthy externality of marine environment planning for the future, partly instigated by the Bermuda Ocean Prosperity Project but with a much longer history.

Having been involved in the BOPP public consultation as part of a village group looking at the benefits of conservation, and being interested in our marine environment generally, it seems that there are a couple of points many can agree on as they relate to fisheries/fish stocks.

One of these points is that there has been a lack of enforcement — and/ or meaningful punishment — in the past, which has undermined trust that the laws, rules and regulations have been adhered to. This needs to be rectified such that this trust is restored and law-breakers are punished and deterred.

The second is that it is difficult to assess the impact of recreational fishing as little, if any, data is collected. This could be remedied by mandatory reporting of catches. (Of course, there are many ways to implement this, but one way is that it could start with reporting catch from boats, and then move to land-based in future, funded by licences — free for children and seniors — who still have to report.) Some data is better than no data. That data can be used to make a better decision about limits in future. Having a sustainable fishery benefits everyone.

The topic of adding marine-protected areas comes up often in the public discourse and it was discussed frequently in the village group also. The experts we spoke with and the science behind them point to protected areas as being a driver for sustainable and even growing yields in some instances — where a thriving fish population in a protected area spills out into the wider marine environment. In Bermuda, this makes a lot of sense inshore, on our reef platform. There is also a tourism benefit to thriving reefs. This seems like a win-win, once the protected areas have a chance to thrive and spillover.

Anecdotally, the fish pots and other pressures have diminished stocks of fish on our reef platform. I remember well stories my grandfather told me about catching yellowtails until the boat was low in the water — far from our present-day reality. Teddy Tucker and the folks in Shark Country describe this depleted state also. The corresponding science makes for concerning reading: predatory reef fish numbers in critical condition (Murdoch TJT, Murdoch JMH, 2016), invasive lionfish depleting juvenile fish stocks (Eddy et al, 2016), seagrass habitats disappearing (Manuel et al, 2019), depleted lobster population (Burns et al, 2023), for example.

Seems better to put in place protections now, and relax these if and when there is evidence supporting same.

MATTHEW CARR

Devonshire