The Government is striving to expand the island’s fishing industry, not shrink it, Walter Roban, the Minister of Home Affairs, insisted yesterday.

Mr Roban also said that he was always willing to meet commercial fishermen angered by proposals to ring-fence 20 per cent of island waters as “no-take protected zones”.

Mr Roban spoke to The Royal Gazette after the release of a report by an independent panel that largely backed the Government’s Bermuda Ocean Prosperity Plan.

The plan has upset some members of the commercial fishing sector, who claim that it puts their livelihoods at risk.

The panel recommended that the Government conducts a financial impact study to see how the no-fishing zones would affect commercial fishing.

Mr Roban, who is also the Deputy Premier, said yesterday that all the panel’s recommendations would be implemented.

He also highlighted that protectionist steps taken now would lead to healthier fish stocks in the future, which fishermen would be able to benefit from.

The minister said: “We are taking on all the recommendations, including the economic impact survey.

“That will be done because it’s important to have a clear view of [what impact] these changes will have on those who extract a living from the marine environment.”

Asked if he was willing to have further discussions with the Fishermen’s Association of Bermuda, he replied: “I have never refused to meet with the FAB, in fact my team meets with them all the time, so there’s never been a closed door by our ministry.

“Any limitations in engagement have not been from our side.”

Mr Roban said: “Fishermen are not part of the problem — they are part of the picture.

“I appreciate they may have a sense of insecurity because it is a hard industry.

“If you look at economic data it is not a large contributor to our economy. If you look at existing data our fisheries are under stress and I want to make it clear that that is not because of fishing.

“That is more so because of environmental pressures around us. Our oceans are changing because of climate change. There are stresses to our local marine environment.

“This plan’s overall goal is to ensure that fishing is sustainable and I have made it very clear that I will do nothing that will directly negatively impact our commercial fishing industry.

“I do not believe that anything we’ve proposed will do that. In fact I believe this plan — if we’re successfully able to get it through the process — will expand fisheries.”

He added: “There will be investment for Bermudians to engage in outer water commercial fisheries and take advantage of the plentiful quotas that we have in our outer waters that can potentially not only be supportive of our local market but could also be transitioned into an export market.

“I already have commitments for considerable funding in the millions of dollars for the BOPP once it gets passed and that can go towards supporting local fishers.

“Although our fishers may argue that our stocks are stable at the moment, there are not the volumes of fish for the industry to expand.

“Volumes that we were catching in the 1980s do not exist.“

Mr Roban said that it was vital for environments such as mangroves and seagrass to be protected because they provided nursery habitats for fish.

He said: “If you have something that is under severe stress and you continue to exploit it and give it no time to replenish, it will continue to deplete and the output from it will be less and less.

“Our goal is to make those key nurseries that we know complement the spawning and growth and maturing of our fish less stressed.

“If that nursery is allowed to replenish and heal, the fish that propagate there, as they get older they will spill out into the open waters and you can take advantage of that spillover.

“You keep the nurseries pristine because if we are allowed to go into those areas you won’t allow them to get stronger.”

Mr Roban scotched suggestions that the report was completed in July but that he sent it back to the panel asking that it be rewritten.

He also dismissed a suggestion that the final report was only made public because of a public access to information request from a member of the public.

The Deputy Premier said: “We have always been committed to an open and transparent process with this, which is why I commissioned an independent panel to ensure that its findings were made public.

“The marine spatial plan is a public document. Everyone can see it. We have no difficulty with the fact there was a Pati request made around this matter as we always intended to make it public.”

Mr Roban acknowledged that an initial report was filed in July, but he returned it because it did not contain a view on the marine spatial plan — a key component of the terms of reference. The completed report was delivered to the ministry in October.

“I did not ask them to take anything out,” he said.