Government has been accused of making three lobster fishermen scapegoats after revoking their licences.

Environment Minister Irving Pearman disallowed the licences after it was discovered that the fishermen had used wire to block the fish escape hatches in their lobster pots.

But fisherman Alan Bean Jr., one of the trio who had licences taken away, said fisheries officials had allowed fishermen to reduce the size of the hatches using the wire.

Government had made mistakes also, he claimed, but it was he and his colleagues who were being made scapegoats.

"It makes no sense for lobster fishermen to set their gear up with the intention of breaking the law when fisheries wardens can pull the pots any time they want,'' said Mr. Bean.

"This whole thing has come about because our gear was not standardised from the start. Very few of the escape hatches were actually cut to the standard size of 2 1/4 inches.

"As responsible fishermen we tried to rectify the problem by working together with management but in doing that we have been made scapegoats.

"Why are they making us the fall guys when both sides made mistakes?'' Alan Bean's brother Delvin Bean explained further.

He said fishermen noticed at the start of the lobster season that the pots were catching a lot of fish.

A decision was made to make the escape hatch -- which allows fish to get out of the trap -- larger. The idea was to make it the same size on all the fishermen's pots.

However, Delvin added: "Every escape hatch was cut to a different size. This was not the way it was supposed to be.'' The fishermen with the larger escape hatches -- which were three inches wide in some cases -- then noticed that they were also hauling up a number of lobster carcasses.

The lobsters in most cases belonged to a smaller unprotected species known as a guinea-chick. They were being eaten by predatory fish which were getting into the traps. More than 15 of the 20 licensed lobster fishermen met with fisheries officials on September 29 and a mutual agreement on a short term solution to the problem was reached.

"We decided to put one piece of wire lengthwise through the middle of the escape hatch to stop these fish from getting in to the trap and killing the lobsters.

"This created two escape hatches for fish to get out of but stopped larger fish from getting into the trap.

"The fisheries people agreed to the idea but then turned around later and said we broke the rules by putting the wire in the hatch.'' The lobster fishermen were told to remove the wires from the pot hatches but when Alvin Bean went to pull his pots and make the necessary alterations, he discovered that fisheries wardens had already pulled them.

"All we wanted to do is work with Government but here we are being shafted again,'' said Alvin Bean. "Why victimise one group when we are supposed to work together?'' Mr. Pearman has said he was only carrying out his responsibility when he revoked the licences. He also revealed that a decision was still to be made on a fourth fisherman.

That fisherman, Ricky Richards, told The Royal Gazette that he criss-crossed the piece of wire across the opening of the escape hatch. He said he expected his lobster licence and his fishing licence to be revoked because of the miscommunication.

Mr. Richards said he had tried to arrange a meeting with Mr. Pearman but was told the Minister was unavailable.