The Editor
The Anguillian
Dear Sir:
I was carried away by the suggestion from our neighbouring fishermen (as reported by our delegation to the Fishing Symposium) that Anguillian fishers would be able to get some of the large fish they catch in the FADS placed in our northern territorial waters.
If our fishermen are unable to travel way yonder to do the kind of deep-sea fishing our southern friends can do, how will they be on the spot to share in the booty? That’s all I am asking. The FADS take in several hundreds of fathoms of rope, I understand, and it is a very costly undertaken.
Our government leaders (other than Sam Webster), know nothing about our territorial waters and fishing there. I believe it would make a whole lot of sense for government to hold one of its usual public consultations to discuss the request for permission to fish in our waters.
This week we are celebrating our secession from St. Kitts-Nevis with Anguilla Day 2013. It is said that neither God nor geography meant for Anguilla to have been joined with St. Kitts-Nevis, being some 70 miles to the northwest. We were placed in an area close to the neighbouring southern islands, but with no islands to our immediate north, thus giving us over 200 nautical miles of territorial waters abounding in what is called pelagic fish (like tunas, wahoos, dolphins etc).
Yes, we cannot properly access those fishing grounds, nor adequately protect them from the professional Japanese and Taiwanese fishermen, but we must eventually find ways to do so. How about the government facilitating our fishermen to become involved in some form of joint ventures to do deep-sea fishing and to have one or two trawlers? This may seem a great task but, as the saying goes, “where there is a will, there is a way.”
I think that we can share our fishing grounds with our southern fishermen, but there must be sound and workable agreements. It is a rather complex situation and therefore needs careful study.
Local Fishing Enthusiast
