By Karen Papin on Monday, March 11, 2002 - 06:06 pm:

Last year while diving at Tori's Reef in 12 feet of water, I was just about hooked by a very, very large hook being pulled behind a local fishing boat. The boat went right over my head. I noticed also, that every Sunday, it seemed to be open fishing for the locals wherever they wanted from land or using small boats. Some of the underwater sites are littered by lots of leftover lines and hooks. On two separate days, there were 3 Curacao fishing boats hanging around the South part of the island. Coming up is my 8th trip to Bonaire. The uncontrolled fishing seems to be getting worse. Do any of you living in Bonaire have any suggestions as to what all of the rest of us could do to improve this situation? Maybe a writing campaign to the heads of the Marine Park or other offices?

I found this at "multifish charters", What reef are they fishing?


Having fun Reef fishing for US$300 is another option. Choose either morning, afternoon or at night. (5 hours, max. 4 persons). You are at the reef in less than 15 minutes, trying to catch groupers, jacks, snappers, barracudas, reef sharks, and much much more.
A fun activity for the kids as well!

Delfin fishes reefs also, which reefs are they fishing?


Reef Fishing
Fishing with light tackle catching Barracuda's, Jacks, Groupers etc.
6 pers. max. US$ 300.-

Fishing is quite legal and a way of life and a business for the locals. The issue of commercial boats from Curacao is another thing. The locals are perectly within the law as long as they dont use spears or dynamite! As for hooking divers, the fisherman are aware of your presence!

Why would ANYONE, who comes to Bonaire ever want to "catch groupers, jacks, snappers, barracudas, reef sharks, and much much more" to kill them? I would rather there be more for me to see in the wild. I hope that divers put two and two together and choose to not support establishments that go fishing. If there was an overpopulation problem, and natural preditors are gone, then maybe man can step in to kull the herd.

John,

I'm a diver who occasionally fishes, and assuming what I catch is edible, I eat it - if not, I throw it back. There are lots of other people who do the same. As Michael points out, fishing (hand lines primarily and definitely no strip fishing) is a way of life here on Bonaire.

I will disagree with Michael about _all_ fishermen being aware of divers. There are a couple of fishermen I've witnessed (both from below water and above) that either: 1) don't know to look for divers; 2) don't care about divers and consider them a nuisance; or 3) are clueless about the effect of hooking a diver (all three are guesses - I've not been able to track down the fishermen in question - my guesses are based on conversations about the intersection of fishing & diving in various other places around the world). However, these particular fishermen are few and far between.

If you hear an engine overhead, just be a little cautious.

Jake

I had hoped to change the perception that our fisherman are doing something illegal or immoral. Again, I will state that the fisherman are aware of the divers, however I did not say they went out of their way to avoid them! I know their is lots if disucssion as to catching reef fish. Unless you are a dedicated vegetarian, it is a fact that animals do die to feed us. I myself could not fish here, but many of my friends are fisherman and ply their trade in a responsible and enviornmentaly sustainable way. If we were to boycott all the places that sell fish, then no restaurant on Bonaire would have any business!

michael-

Why are charters taking people who are not locals to fish reefs and which ones do they fish?

And by the way what is the Bonaire Marine Park for anyway?

Just because something is a "marine park' does not mean fishing is illegal. It usually means there is some sort of management of the area whether for uses and/or resources. Marine parks are generally NOT no-fishing zones. You can check the NOAA http://www.noaa.gov web site for info about marine parks in the US. The majority of marine parks and reserves allow fishing.

The Bonaire marine park surrounds the entire island of Bonaire and Klein Bonaire down to 200 feet. The laws of the marine park restrict the uses of its resources as well as the changing or destruction of it in anyway. There are some sections that are restricted access - no diving, etc. There is no anchoring for larger than rowboats. There is a mooring system. You cannot just put in a pier or mooring - it must have a permit and follow guidelines for installation and form. Traditional fishing methods only are allowed here - no spearfishing, no drag nets, no cyanide, etc. and no harvesting of marine life for the aquarium trade. It covers building within so many meters of the ocean. It covers the seagrass beds, the mangroves, the salinas, sand harvesting, etc.

This brings up another question from someone who has not been to Bonaire (yet). Are shore divers required to tow a dive flag in order to make boaters (fishermen or otherwise) aware of their presence?

Becky,
There is no requirement to tow a dive flag and really no reason to do so. I spend hours on my boat when on Bonaire and can assure you there are very few times a fishing boat approaches areas where divers might be. During my last trip, I spent about 6 hours per day at various moorings...and over 17 days I recall seeing one small (maybe 7'foot) boat in an area where divers potentially could have been.

I NEVER am concerned about being hooked by a fisherman. Just not that much boat traffic!

Let me know if you see things differently after your trip...and I hope you enjoy your dives without any worries!

Scott

Michael and Jake can comment if this is wrong but I seem to remember that most fishing by locals near shore--and divers--is done very early after dawn before most of us are in the water. They also tend to fish out beyond the drop-off far enough not to be near divers. Not denying a near miss can happen, just unlikely. They are definitely not in the class of lobstermen in MA!!!

I concur with Scott--in 19 years of diving on Bonaire I have not been bothered a fisherman.

Re fishing charters: I have not seen charter fishing boats near shore. Do they generally fish offshore, or just away from dive sites?

The fishing charters who take tourist and non residents to fish are mostly locals although I have see a few from Curacao. It is really not a problem unless commercial fleets start to ply our waters. Glenn, You are indeed correct.

The only times I've had close encounters were once at Red Slave, when a stone anchor block about the size of two or three cinder blocks missed me by about 4 feet, and several times in the Playa area (where all the yachts are moored and there's a lot of boat traffic). The Playa area is the only place I'd suggest considering a dive flag, but even there it's not necessary if you keep down when you hear an engine.

The one really nice fisherman story I have is when I was diving at Tori's Reef (doing Dan & Faith's Navigation dive for their AOW), and left my truck there, with the windows rolled down and unlocked. Upon coming out of the water I found that the local fisherman had rolled up my windows because of impending rain :-)

Another fisherman is an occasional plumber as well (when the fish aren't biting) - really nice guy.

I've never done a Reef Fishing trip with a charter boat - just big game fishing, so I don't know how they operate closer to shore.

Jake

"The fishing charters who take tourist and non residents to fish are mostly locals although I have see a few from Curacao. It is really not a problem unless commercial fleets start to ply our waters. Glenn, You are indeed correct."

Michael-

I think the point is only locals are allowed to fish the reefs. It doesnt matter if the boat owner is local, you cant take non-locals to fish bonaire reefs.

"It is really not a problem unless commercial fleets start to ply our waters."

-says who?!?!

BMP Fishing Brochure is at: http://www.bmp.org/html/fishing_regulations.html

Please note that it doesn't restrict non-locals from fishing on the reef. Instead the BMP brochure simply asks that visitors please fish in Blue Water if they fish (but nothing probhibits any fisherman - local or otherwise - from using normal line fishing equipment (hand reel or rod) to catch reef fish).

As far as the current levels of reef fishing being a problem or not, I dive in areas where people reef fish, and haven't seen any noticable change in fish populations over the last several years. That's non-scientific of course, but the reality is that while reef fishing is permitted, it's not commonly done as fisherman prefer to catch bigger fish, and those are in blue water.

Jake