DoE nets suspect poachers off NWP

| 13/05/2020 | 92 Comments
Marine life thought to have been poached, recovered by the DoE, May 2020

(CNS): Two West Bay men can expect to be prosecuted after they were reportedly caught poaching by Department of Environment conservation officers on Monday. The DoE officers were on boat patrol in the Marine Park Zone near North West Point in the district when they found the men in the water taking marine life and using an unlicensed speargun.

The officers recovered 25 fish of various species and two lobsters, one of which was a protected species. The fish were seized and will be donated to local charities while the homemade speargun was also taken by the officers.

The two men were escorted to shore, where they were warned for intended prosecution for several breaches of the National Conservation Law.


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Category: Crime, Environment

Comments (92)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    let them do community service at the minimum wage rate until the exhaust the THREE thousand fine

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    • Anonymous says:

      Wonderful idea!

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    • Anonymous says:

      $3000 Marine Curfew Breach + $250,000 Marine Park Fine + boat forfeit value.

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      • Anonymous says:

        Great! More community service then! I think the poster had a wonderful idea. Traffic tickets not paid? Garnish wages and add public service hours. Dui? License lost and x amount of public service required.

        We want our island to be the most beautiful and safe place for stay over tourism? Have the small time law breakers out there doing community projects to keep all beaches clean, paint cabanas, clean parks and toys, road side litter pick ups…. the list goes on. That save all the money cig pays to people around Christmas. Since they won’t have any this year. Oh, just thought of another. Iguana cullers. Do it for free, more money in cig pockets to sort out the nightmare that is the public schools.

        Start a national lottery to fund a trade school.

        Ideas are what we need in these times not posts where others are criticized because they have something you don’t care to use. Ideas people, let’s sort this island out while we have a great Opportunity.

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  2. Anon says:

    We need a permanent marine patrol in West Bay, need I say more?.

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    • Anonymous says:

      This is what DOE should be paying attention to, but instead all they are now doing is hampering progress and development by interfering with planning applicants

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    • Anonymous says:

      Every sound should have at least one or more dedicated marine officers to patrol and enforce waters.

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    • Anonymous says:

      And a new jail in West Bay, so most of the criminals can be closer to home

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    • Anonymous says:

      Why? Effective prosecution and punishment of offenders would bring an end to it.

  3. Anonymous says:

    This is what you get when the boot heel of Government continuously steps on the neck of hungry Caymanian people. Open up our Country now!

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  4. Caz says:

    Disgusting our culture our caymanian freedom.shakine again by.the new colnnest trying to recolinise use all.wherer are your shackles a hole.we the real caymanians have had a nuf of your wannabe slavemastermind.go awhey.enuf is enuf dam colanist it’s our not your culture and island.8

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  5. Anonymous says:

    I guess important crime issues are already solved.

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    • Anonymous says:

      This is an important crime. All laws should be adhered to and anyone breaking the laws should be prosecuted.
      Not only breaking curfew laws but fishing in a marine park! It’s a marine park for a reason.
      Save our lobsters/endangered fish.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Look, when all of us sat home going insane obeying the rules but wanting to fish and feed our families, waiting, waiting, waiting, this IS important. I hope they are prosecuted. If fishing permission is delayed because of these people then I wish they would name and shame them.

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  6. Anonymous says:

    Good work guys. Keep it up. And don’t worry, you will never be popular with the people who think they are more entitled to take anything from anywhere at anytime. You are doing the RIGHT thing. Thank you.

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  7. Anonymous says:

    Nothing will happen to them.

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  8. Anonymous says:

    Well done Alden, this is on you. The people are hungry.

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    • Anonymous says:

      no-one goes hungry in cayman. overeating is your problem if anything

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      • Anonymous says:

        True story: I was once approached by a Caymanian in the car park at Kirk Market. He asked me for money because he said he was hungry. I offered to go back into Kirk Market so that he could get a meal that I would pay for.
        “No,” he said to me. “I don’t really like the food in there. I want to go to Mango Tree.”
        There you have it folks; entitlement runs deep.

        CNS: Do you judge yourself by the beggars in your home country?

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        • Anonymous says:

          Nothing to do with food or entitlement. Simply the money was to use for other substances.

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        • Anonymous says:

          This is my home country, entitlement is real.

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        • Anonymous says:

          Many of us know this guy, 12:31. He has been a loser/prisoner since some of old teachers taught him a long long time ago. A Dog City, sorry, Watlers Road guy. I have met him at Foster’s in Savannah and Hurley’s ( he gets around) and given him the same line you did….no money but I’ll buy you lunch inside. Both times I was told food in those places was no effing good, he wanted to go to Mango Tree. So I said, sorry bobo. No deal, I’ll buy you the food but not give you the money. Eff you etc. Question for the owners of Mango Tree: why would he want to go there……….?

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    • Anonymous says:

      They are not going to eat all those fish

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  9. Anonymous says:

    Normally I support the detection and prosecution of poachers and “rapers of the seas” but under these circumstances, I would prefer a hungry man poaching fish instead of stealing from others to feed himself and maybe his family.

    DoE can ignore when they want (and they do), these times should call for their discretion. Take the speargun (they’ll make another one anyway) and give them a stern warning but leave them with the fish to eat or sell.

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    • Anonymous says:

      They have IGNORED Cabinet Ministers purchasing wild turtle for years so I don’t see why they can’t in this case !

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      • Anonymous says:

        I call BS. If you have proof of what you say – either part of it – then send it to the Ombudsman, the police, the Gov. and the press. Do it so they all see the others have been told. – But you can’t. Because you have no proof and are unwilling to stand up for yourself and your country.

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    • Anonymous says:

      No, not unacceptable. Poaching is stealing. You are stealing fish from your future. And not to mention poaching fish that are in trouble like the Parrot

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    • Anonymous says:

      don’t use the hungry excuse nonsense….if they are hungry nau or red cross will deliver food in a matter of hours

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  10. Anonymous says:

    Look how tiny that spotted lobster is! Lock them up!

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  11. Anonymous says:

    These guys are not doing this “to feed their family”. They could fish from shore like everyone else. Fine them !,

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  12. Anonymous says:

    Can anyone explain why KYD$3000/1 year in jail curfew breach wasn’t one of the other additional charges? Hello?!?

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    • Anonymous says:

      Guess we can go fishing.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Read the consolidated legal report on the legality of these tickets/fines/warnings. Im not sure they are going to stick!

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    • Anonymous says:

      Nothing says it wasn’t. This was a DoE release talking about what they charged the person with, not what the overall charges are.

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      • Anonymous says:

        Why not apply the KYD$250,000 DOE off-season Marine Park spear fishing and boat forfeiture orders? Point being that DoE are way too light on serial poachers. The laws and regulations become meaningless if they are benevolently waived at the pleasure of the attending officer without any due process. It sends all the wrong messages to all the wrong people.

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        • Anonymous says:

          4:13 Let me stop ya there! The court of LAW are too soft on the poachers. The DOE enforcement officers can catch the law breakers and take them to court but in the end it is up to the court to charge them. The DOE are doing the best they can. Its our legal system that needs to take this pilfering of our oceans seriously. Nothing will change until they are issued more weighty fines or have their vessels seized.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Because DOE don’t enforce curfew breaches, that’s a police job.

  13. Anonymous says:

    They maybe need to feed their hungry family and that was a last resort And along comes the real Bad guys (THE COPS) I feel sorry for them and that will just be the start. Instead of charging them the GOV should make sure they have food to eat and HELP them instead of FEEDING STING RAYS Sting rays are not on lock down

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    • Anonymous says:

      Unfortunately, that is not the case with poachers who take fish from a Marine Park. If they were caught fishing off the shore somewhere which is not a protected area, you could have argued the “feeding the family” point.

      But taking protected species out of a Marine Park? Nope.

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    • Robert Mugabe IV says:

      What part of ‘Marine Park’ don’t you understand?
      Unless they get 15 years in prison, these arrests will have no effect on saving marine life in the Parks. The existing slap on the wrist ‘punishments’ need to be replaced with proper draconian consequences.

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      • Anonymous says:

        Its not slaps on wrists. Its whose paying them to go get the catch for restaurants etc and those “connected and important” persons can make charges go away.

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    • Anonymous says:

      If someone breaks into your house to steal your belongings to sell because they don’t have money and need to feed their family are you going to call “the real Bad guys” or will you feel sorry for them?

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    • Anonymous says:

      No government on earth is responsible for taking care of of its people. If you can’t get a job and feed yourself like everybody else you are redundant. If you are an expat Caymanians would be crying bloody murder. If your a Caymanian you should be ashamed.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Bro, come take some chickens from my yard if ya hangry. Win win.

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