As more cases of illegal fishing are prepared for the courts, the head of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources has called for stronger penalties.

Geoffrey Smith told Hamilton Rotary Club that poaching undermined legitimate fishing, eroded public confidence in the law and posed dire ecological risks.

It comes as the DENR works on a memorandum of understanding with the Royal Bermuda Regiment Coastguard to place fishery wardens on regiment vessels for longer periods.

“Stronger penalties are definitely needed because you’re not just robbing our fisheries today — it is our future generations as well and having weak fines is something we need to avoid,” he added.

“The whole point of prosecutions is that they can deter people.”

Dr Smith’s remarks came he briefed attendees on plans for marine protected areas.

He said over the past 24 months, five commercial fishers were among six before the courts for breaching fishing laws for trapping the black grouper, a large, bottom-dwelling reef fish commonly called rockfish.

Under the law, it is illegal to catch more than one rockfish per boat per day.

The forum heard that fishermen who broke the rules in a protected area north-east of the island were handed fines ranging from $3,500 to $6,500.

“Five of them being commercial fishermen, they should have known better,” Dr Smith said.

Two were fined $6,500 each while in the most recent incident, the commercial fisherman, a senior, was fined $6,000.

Dr Smith said catching the grouper species amounted to “taking these fish away from our future generations”.

He said monitoring was conducted by the DENR in tandem with the RBR Coastguard.

The Commercial Fishery Council has suspended the licences of three commercial fishermen and two more are expected to be suspended.

Dr Smith said a summons was being prepared for another fisherman who broke the law but the DENR could not locate.

He added: “I’ve got three other cases now which I am preparing now to go to prosecution.”

DENR also took a recreational fisherman who netted seven parrotfish to court in December. He was fined $10,000 for spearing the protected species

Police, acting on reports, were called to the Walsingham Nature Reserve on March 13, 2024 and found the man with seven dead parrotfish and a pole spear.

Dr Smith said the DENR had been working on plans give extra training to the Department of Public Prosecutions and the Bermuda Police Service.

He spoke of a team effort to police the marine sector, with collaboration between DENR, the Department of Marine and Ports Services base in St George's and the RBR Coastguard.

In some instances, fishery wardens were placed on Coastguard vessels while Coastguard personnel have been placed on DENR’s vessels.

“Our fishery personnel tend to get a bit intimidated by some of the fishermen whereas if you send the regiment, then you get a better reaction,” he said.

He said the DENR was preparing an agreement with the RBR so that fishery wardens were seconded to Coastguard vessels for nine to ten months in a calendar year.

Bermuda is a member of Britain’s Blue Belt Ocean Shield Programme, which has purchased new equipment and provided training to Bermuda-based enforcement officers after the first year of the programme.

Dr Smith said that since 2022, the island had received more than $1.1 million in funding for measures such as a sophisticated camera able to work at low light for a Coastguard vessel.

Dr Smith said: “It also operates from a mile away. This can actually take really good imagery so that witness statements can be prepared in the boat.”

Drones are also being explored as an option.