New Bahamas Marine Protected Areas

[ReelFun]

The Bahamas government has established six new marine protected areas after a study which began in 1999 to determine the scientific validity of marine reserve sites following observation of overfishing, habitat loss and degradation of water quality to marine resources.
Areas include Abaco Cays; Bimini; South Eleuthera; Berry Islands from Chub Cay to Whale Cay; Exuma from Jewfish Cays to mainland George Town and Exuma east of Blacks Rocks between Little Exuma and North Long Island.
Precise boundaries have yet to be established for Abaco, Bimini and South Eleuthera.
Fishing, spearing, setting traps and diving conch will be permanently prohibited in these areas as it is in the already established Bahamas National Trust National Parks

[floridadeckie]

wow, this has the potential to cause quite an uproar among the sportfishing community. Hopefully they dont get too crazy off of Chub and Abaco. Just one more potential blow to the tourism income via sportfishing traffic

[Seth]

Good for the Bahamians! They need some tighter restrictions and some protected areas. The one big aspect that has been missing from their strategy is enforcement. I hope they can come up with the money to hire the right people and enforce the laws.

[floridadeckie]

agreed, I'm glad to see them beginning to actually enforce their laws. What I would REALLY like to see, however, is Bahamian officials policing their own people just as they do the big money sportys instead of turning a blind eye to alot of the blatant poaching that goes on

[TightLines]

Was wanting to read more about this any links? Does this include flats fishing (Fly Fishing) bones in Bimini?