Aug 31 - GSD Questions Government’s Line On Fishing
The GSD says it notes the way Spanish Fishermen “continue to come into BGTW to fish with illegal nets and rakes on a daily basis, despite the clear manifesto promise by the GSLP-Liberals in 2011 to put a stop to the practice.”
A statement from the party continued: “It was not only a manifesto promise but the GSLP-Liberals spent years in Opposition assuring GOHNS and other interested groups that they would put a stop to these practices and ensure the Nature Protection Act was strictly enforced.
“The Minister for the Environment, John Cortes, who was then head of GOHNS, was at the forefront of criticisms of the policy of the then GSD administration only to forget or ignore the many statements he made as an environmentalist once he was elected to Government.
“Neither Mr Picardo nor Mr Cortes have been consistent in their policy on netting and raking. Both of them have conveniently forgotten their cries of "aqui no se pesca" in 2011. Ironically, much of the illegal fishing takes place in the area west of the runway, very near the artificial reef. On a number of occasions the Government has said that the reef is replenishing fish stocks in the area. That may be so, but only for that fish stock to be then poached illegally by Spanish Fishermen. If it were not so serious, this farce would be comical.
“To cap it all, in 2014 the Government brought amendments to the Nature Protection Act in order to allow the Minister for the Environment to introduce regulations to allow fishing with certain kinds of nets. Without those regulations any kind of fishing with nets is illegal. Before and after those amendments to the Nature Protection Act, the Government had been in discussions with representatives of the Spanish Fishing Guilds as to its plans in relation to those fishing regulations. The only reason why we know this is because of reports in the press in Spain and comments made by the leaders of the Spanish Fishing Guilds. For his part Mr Picardo simply refused to answer questions in Parliament about those plans.
“The GSLP-Liberal Government, as in so many things, have simply not been honest with people of this community and they should stop blaming the police for lack of enforcement and either start keeping their promises or admit to people that their policy is "aqui si se pesca.""
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