Suspect poachers caught at Rum Point
(CNS): Four men are facing a list of possible criminal charges for poaching offences after conservation officers from the Department of Environment intercepted their boat last week in a protected marine reserve. On Wednesday, 2 February, DoE officers responded to a report from members of the public about suspicious activity in the Marine Reserve in the Rum Point area, according to a marine enforcement alert published on social media.
The boat was intercepted near the channel and when the officers searched it and the area they found two net bags containing 51 fish of various species and eight lobsters. All of the marine creatures appeared to have been taken with illegal spear guns from within the marine reserve and included undersized fish as well as exceeding the lobster limit.
As a result, the conservation officers seized the boat and a Honda CRV that had also been used in the commission of the suspected poaching, while the recovered seafood was donated to a local charity.
The four men are now facing several possible charges, including taking marine life from a marine reserve, possession of an unlicensed spear gun, taking marine life with an unlicensed spear gun, taking lobster above the daily limit and taking fish under eight inches long.
The DoE said that violations of marine park, spear gun licence and catch limit regulations are all criminal offences that will be prosecuted. Breaches of the National Conservation Act should be reported to DoE Conservation Officers at 916 4271. Active poaching can also be reported to 911.
See here to find out about Marine Park boundaries, fishing season and catch limits.
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Category: Marine Environment, Science & Nature
Find out which restaurants they sell to. And spot check dive boats.
private sales. “I know a guy”. The restaurants are too easy a target for DoE.
I make my living off of the sea and i’ll be damned if someone prevents me from doing it.
Then stay out of the national parks.
DOE/ GOV fined someone! Rolls eyes. But let’s slap developers on the wrist for removing mangroves that feed the fish and provides protection for fishes to spawn.
People’s comments are encouraging but more education is needed to protect the whole ecosystem.
I wonder what the fine was for the “FIN” development that destroyed the coral nursery project?
Finally
Nobody checking those live aboard dive boats?
We dont have any live aboard dive boats in Cayman.
10 @ 2:36pm – I’ve heard eye-witness reports about lobsters being harvested with tanks and lights from dive boats at night. Hmmm..it’s not impossible.
There should be a complete moratorium on taking anything from our waters for 5 years (except perhaps for lion fish). Let our marine life have a fighting chance. The ecotourism dollar will be well worth it. People who want to fish can go offshore. We import everything we sell in restaurants anyway and people who claim they can’t do a anything else for a livelihood, get a life and learn a new skill in what will be a booming ecotourism market.
Lol What do you mean “except perhaps for lion fish” you dingdong. Lion fish are one of the main reasons are fish sticks are depleted. There should never be a moratorium on those.
Those lazy fishermen should be getting those rather than the others. They are good eating too!
1.31; those who can read have a clear advantage.
A moratorium on taking anything but lionfish……you might want to read comments before replying to them 1.31 you absolute ding-dong.
Only Caymanians should be allowed to fish. Non-Caymanians can fish via locally owned fishing charter businesses.
That was the law but foreign lawyers and judges refused to follow it.
And spineless MLAs refused to insist that the rule of law was upheld by the court.
Especially so called immigrant judges who want their own yard to have more rights than Caymanians.
What about putting hefty fines on developers who remove the mangroves. If the fish have no where to breed there would be no need for a moratorium on taking anything from our waters as there won’t be anything to take.
What eco-tourism dollar? Eco-tourists do not flock to tourist traps characterised by irresponsible over-development of once-pristine shorelines, snarled traffic, and concrete jungles like most of Seven Mile Beach.
Ban fishing at Twelve Mile Bank for two years, watch and see how it will thrive again. Good Conservation. Good far all!
https://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/17/science/earth/17fish.html
How come they not seized all them restaurants selling lobster went XXXX last year they had fishermen delivering them right by the dock i saw with my own eyes asked the server if my 12 top all wanted lobster if they had enough she said they had more than enough call DOE they went the day after say they didnt see any what a joke but call say two black boys in the park they there before you hang up.
I have said this repeatedly; unless the DOE starts punishing restaurants then the poaching will continue.
Poachers wouldn’t poach if there wasn’t a demand from the restaurants.
Simple economics; demand = supply.
Although in this particular case its probably just some guys wanting to eat.
It’s a sad day when the local people cannot eat from their own waters and probably can’t work because of the world situation. I’m fairly certain some families are in real pain over this and all I can see is BS comments. All these expats spying “members of the public” on the water or in their million dollar homes with their holier than tho attitude I wish would leave and don’t come back!
If it is expats they caught, well you need to ensure every permit holder is making enough money to live! You can’t blame people if you allow them to be here and then let their boss take advantage of their labor. It’s bad either way
Highly doubt its expats! A million dollar home owner would have a million dollar boat too, not a POS like that one!!
And wouldn’t kill all the wildlife
Only the wildlife on their plot of land, to make the canal or build the dock; after that’s done they can point fingers.
Gotcha.
What about putting hefty fines on developers who remove the mangroves. If the fish have no where to breed there would be no need for a moratorium on taking anything from our waters as there won’t be anything to take.
10 @ 2:36pm – I’ve heard eye-witness reports about lobsters being harvested with tanks and lights from dive boats at night. Hmmm..it’s not impossible.
10 @ 10:08pm – So only millionaires are expats? What about the other 97% of “furriners” here? Aren’t they expats?
9:19pm – Do you not have enough of an edumacation to understand the term “Marine Park”? And why they are necessary??????????
Do you not understand what that’s all about?
Seriously.
Hey DoE!! Apparently THIS has been the problem all along!? The uneducated fisherman do not even know where the zones are nor what they’re for.
Doofus. While do you think created the marine parks? Caymanians!
Cute story tho: remember when the rich private sector head the Conservation Committee was caught red handed?
He Made good patties n milkshakes tho.
We have plenty of waters that aren’t protected, and plenty of ways of catching food that aren’t illegal. F*** those assholes
Right, they have a boat, gas for the boat, transportation for the boat, but they really need that 6 inch fish in order not to starve to death. GTFOH
Which tree do you live under?
they will get a small fine….jail time should be mandatory for this.
You can see non Caymanians fishing everywhere. Apparently they are not aware you need a permit and they will eat the tiniest fish no matter what!! Its their culture!!
10 @ 8:48 pm – Call them out – Jamaicans and Philipinos!! J’cans will eat ANY size fish and Pinoys will eat ANYTHING from the sea – frys, urchins, periwinkles, bleeding teeth, anything stuck to the rocks, anything which comes up on their hooks!
Caymanian fishermen don’t bother with small fish or molluscs. Our fishermen and poachers go for conch, lobster, whelk and don’t know when to stop catching fish if they are getting a good catch.
Either way, it’s raping the seas! Moderation please!
How about we enforce the immigration law!
So what a way this society has evolved. XXXX Frank schilling has boldly stated that he is developing for the people that are to come here, and to hell with anyone else. A man was recently sentenced to prison for overstaying by 15 years. But these poachers has you all totally outraged.
But let’s build over ocean villas in Marine Park – no arrests.
What happened to the illegal spear guns and how did they acquire them?.
Police gone fishing.
licenses should be sold to non caymanians. Cayman waters shouldn’t be a free for all. This this should be the next step in preserving Cayman waters and ensuring plenty for future Cayman Generations.
There isn’t going to be plenty for all, ever. Your total fishing water is not enough for the Caymanian population right now. You’ve got enough for a few hundred subsistence fishing families and some weekend amateurs, maybe, and that’s it. The decline in fish over the last ten years has been unbelievable. You don’t have to be a scientist to see it.
But common sense would tell you that it’s not people fishing that’s running the fish, it’s all that steal and cement on the edge of the shorelines that’s running everything away.
Don’t blame the fisher men it’s all a misdirection for development.
You’ve got too many people catching and eating the fish. It’s simple. There’s good habitat in that Rum Point park and miles of mangroves nearby, but few fish. 5 years ago there was a big conch every ten feet. They all disappeared in the space of a year (before the pandemic.) Poaching to sell is why.
09 @ 8:06pm – Fishing permits for non-Caymanians are required – $1000 per license I think. But, like other laws or regs which exist here, no one monitors or enforces it. DoE is strapped.
They only arrest the Caymanians. The number of ex-pats I see on the shore fishing and keeping fish way smaller than 8 inches. Where is the enforcement there?
Did you call the police to report it?
I did once. They told me “not their job.” Same response they gave when I reported theft of pension monies.
Once.
And you’ve been dining out on that story for how long now, complaining but not actually doing anything.
Clearly you think its not your problem too.
51 separate SPECIES of fish! So we are all left scratching our heads to speculate how many fish in aggregate that DoE had to classify the take in that way, plus the 8 lobsters. Imagine the marine depletion impact these four were making in a single day, and then multiple that impact across a season, then a lifetime. Unsustainable.
7:43pm, stop drinking too much of the Kool aid it will run your belly.
Ain’t no way these men can kill out all the fish in the ocean, do you even know how much eggs a single fish produce come on man grow a brain and see the bigger picture on what is actually running the marine life away, over development on the shores and overflow of fresh water waste and etc,
People like you are so ignorant to the truth and the sad part is that there’s too many of you,smdh.
If the photo to this article is the actual catch taken then there are about 10 species of fish or does each fish count as a different species……
CNS: Sorry, it was a type. It’s corrected now.
Species has to be a typo or misspoken, impossible to have that many.
CNS: Sorry, yes, it was a typo. It’s corrected now.
Foolishness. They don’t pay for fishing licences as they do all over the USA. But Immigrants should pay to fish!
Never mind the lobster and conch I have seen first hand that they divers poach!
Don’t bother call DOE.
This does happen too often yes. Well done DoE. However, something really doesn’t sit right as I read this news and think….of all the rich developers and heavy equipment owners clearing acres and acres of mangrove (the same mangrove these fish grow and thrive in) no arrests and no confiscation of any equipment or vehicles! None!….Why? Because after all these decades of talk, and the many different governments, no law with any teeth….no political will to right the greater wrong! Why?
Poaching penalties are tougher.
But wait. Is it the DoE that would police/monitor the heavy equipment and rich developers???
Genuine question.
No. It is not. That would likely fall under Department of Planning, even if the laws were increased as the OP suggested. You’d either be developing without a permit, or developing outside the rules (of your building permit). Either way probably not strictly a DoE case. (You’d need to go into a protected area with your bulldozer for it to be DoE. Like going in now with your fishing line.)
Why does CIG not fairly penalize those developing w/o legal permission?….that’s the question!
DOE….KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!
Yes, DoE! Please make sure ALL charges stick! Keep their boat, car and anything found therein! Also, name them and shame them!
Those “large” fish are around the size of the man’s shoe and the smaller ones are babies – with no purpose but to grow bigger!
Well done DoE!
Thanks DOE. This happens too frequently.