A decrease in the Department of Environmental Protection's expenditure is making it "very hard" to carry out work, according to director Fred Ming.

Spending has fallen from just over $4 million in 2007 to an expected $3.85 million this year, he said.

"Our expenditure over the past four years has declined somewhat, and it will probably go down again this year, which makes it very hard for us to carry out the programmes that we carry out," he said. "And we're starting to get pushback from people like BIOS [Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences] and so forth over that."

The Department contributes to BIOS monitoring projects, chiefly its Marine Environmental Programme.

Dr. Ming called this work a flagship programme and said it would be spared further cuts.

"Our major programmes have been cut as far as can be without putting them in jeopardy," he said.

Dr. Ming's comments followed a speech earlier this week to the Hamilton Rotary Club.

He told Rotarians Bermuda's fisheries could take a hit from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill earlier this year, even though the oil itself will not reach local waters.

Environmental engineers forecast a delayed impact on Bermuda's fisheries as the spill affects seaweed in the region.

"We're looking to see if there's going to be a delayed effect on our catches of finned fish, and that's a distinct possibility," Dr. Ming said.

He added that a study in conjunction with the Virginia Institute of Marine Science has identified the organisms responsible for large-scale fish deaths in Bermuda waters since last year.

"The two organisms, the bacteria Vibio harveyi and the parasite Brooklynella sp., have been diagnosed as the cause of fish kills," Dr. Ming said.

Local scientists are still unsure what weakened fish populations to the point they became vulnerable.

Dr. Ming also described ongoing plans to reconcile the interests of boaters, fishermen and divers to protect Bermuda's waters.

He said the Department was working with "some very wealthy donors" and Stanford University in California, to come up with a plan over the next decade or so.

Little more was revealed on a Government initiative to declare the Sargasso a marine protected area.

Following his speech, Dr. Ming told The Royal Gazette that the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office recently said it was "willing to work with us to gain the support of organisations such as ICCAT (the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas) and perhaps the IMO (International Maritime Organisation) as we try to build some sort of consensus with different countries".

However, he added, the UK Government "haven't written us a blank cheque, nor will they fund anything".