Fishermen’s livelihoods will not be accepted as “the sacrificial lamb on Government's altar of good intentions and public image”, according to an industry body.

The Fishermen’s Association of Bermuda reiterated its refusal to accept a “full protection” fishing-free zone that protects 20 per cent of Bermuda’s waters from fishing, after the Government publicly released an updated memorandum of understanding dated June that was ultimately rejected by the industry.

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FAB Draft MOU 29 June 2023.pdf

The FAB is at loggerheads with the Government as fishermen disagree with the Bermuda Ocean Prosperity Programme’s proposed method of protecting the island's exclusive economic zone.

The BOPP was originally approved in 2019 in a tripartite agreement between the Government, the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences and the Waitt Institute, a US-based environmental group committed to ocean conservation.

The FAB, which presented a petition opposing the plan to the Government in January, says its catch-all approach on banning activities in the zone deemed harmful to ocean health, such as dredging and mining, does not take into account the "minimal impact“ Bermuda’s small-scale fishing has on the marine environment.

An FAB spokeswoman said: “At the end of the day, FAB cannot and will not tolerate the precedence of implementing this ‘full protection’ label, which was baked into BOPP in the initial 2019 MoU between Government, the Waitt Foundation and Bios, with no public or stakeholder consultation. It's not the percentage that's the problem, it's the label.

“Governments ban things that are harmful. If shoreline development, dumping, dredging, untreated water discharge, mining, oil and gas extraction are all banned under ‘full protection’ it is because those things are deemed harmful to the marine environment.

“Including fishing in that list equates fishing with those harms, telling the public that fishing is inherently harmful.

“This does not take into account the reality of the minimal impact that Bermuda's small-scale, small-impact fisheries truly has on the environment.

“Why is this not taken into account? Because it's not understood, because no one, not the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, not Bios, bothers to go out with our bait-net fishers to see what they really do, understand the care that they take, the fact that there's almost no by-catch, that mangroves are not damaged, that nets are hand pulled, hand carried to avoid harming the sea floor.

“They're not taking into account our hook-and-line fisheries that yield no by-catch, or the species-targeted MPAs that are supported by fishermen.

“They're not even looking for scientific justification or data supporting their theory, they're just counting on the public to swallow the excuse that global overfishing means that everywhere is overfished, when Bermuda's artisan fishing industry has one of the lowest impacts on a marine environment anywhere in the world.

“We can have good intentions and good management without this ‘full protection’ label.”

The Government has said such a marine protected area will develop a “balanced and integrated marine spatial plan to safeguard our marine resources for current and future generations”.

Upon rejection of the MoU, the FAB disengaged from the BOPP process.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Home Affairs said: “As we advance, the Government sincerely hopes that the FAB will actively re-engage with the BOPP so that their knowledge and expertise can help create the best plan possible for Bermuda’s current and future generations.

“The marine spatial plan, under development and very much in draft form, has proposed locating 19.9 per cent of the committed 20 per cent of fully protected areas outside the territorial waters within the outer regions of the Exclusive Economic Zone.

“Of the remaining, approximately 0.1 per cent is proposed in the inshore waters, an estimated 10.1 per cent of the reef platform.

“Additional highly protected areas are also proposed. This plan will continue to benefit from active engagement by all stakeholders, including the commercial fishermen.”