Abacoparrott
01-29-2007, 06:20 PM
I noticed on the other Abaco board that new fishing regulations have been adopted as of January for the entire Bahamas. Since Ralph is 'puter saavy and is probably aware of these new regs, he might post a link to the new regulations. The gist is this......the amount of fish you could previously take PER PERSON is now PER BOAT. Big change. Out of curiosity, I went to a couple of fishing forums to see what the fishermen were saying about this new development. One guy comes to Abaco every year with his family and 4 other boats....5 boats total. He claims that they spend 5-8000 per boat per week in the Bahamas....or $40,000 total. His group has just cancelled all of their slip and lodging rentals and are heading to the
Florida Keys instead. There is no telling how many others are going to do the same thing. What this means is.....this is probably gonna be a good thing for reinvigorating the fish inventory IF the ones who stay away were taking loads of fish back to the states. I will not debate whether this is true or not. I don't think anyone REALLY knows. What I do know is this, that there will probably be more open slips for the rest of us who want to visit Abaco by boat. That, in turn, SHOULD keep the slip rents down a bit after the fairly steep increases that began after the last big hurricane season 2 years ago. Keep in mind that prices will not decrease unless you shop.....and let them know that you are shopping. I am not trying to shaft the local marina owners (the bahamian government does that quite well on their own) just giving folks my opinion on what the fishing regs ramifications might be. Unfortunately, the dwindling fish population probably needed a little help but at the cost of some locals losing a little business. Let's hope a few of us non-fishermen can take up the slack.....ken
Florida Keys instead. There is no telling how many others are going to do the same thing. What this means is.....this is probably gonna be a good thing for reinvigorating the fish inventory IF the ones who stay away were taking loads of fish back to the states. I will not debate whether this is true or not. I don't think anyone REALLY knows. What I do know is this, that there will probably be more open slips for the rest of us who want to visit Abaco by boat. That, in turn, SHOULD keep the slip rents down a bit after the fairly steep increases that began after the last big hurricane season 2 years ago. Keep in mind that prices will not decrease unless you shop.....and let them know that you are shopping. I am not trying to shaft the local marina owners (the bahamian government does that quite well on their own) just giving folks my opinion on what the fishing regs ramifications might be. Unfortunately, the dwindling fish population probably needed a little help but at the cost of some locals losing a little business. Let's hope a few of us non-fishermen can take up the slack.....ken