Help Stop the Gill-Net Slaughter in Puerto Rico
by Doug Olander / Sport Fishing Magazine blog
Everything that swims is likely to end up in these mile-long nets, including tarpon, bonefish, sea birds, turtles and manatees.
[dropcap]I[/dropcap]confess to having a special place in my fishing heart (an appendage to my regular heart) for Puerto Rico, first after enjoying some of the best inshore tarpon fishing anywhere in it’s “urban back-country” lagoons. Secondly, I have marveled at the commitment and energy of many of its citizens working to clean up those very lagoons on an ongoing, annual basis; they’ve pulled out many, many tons of trash, and are striving, along with assistance from the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation, to get the territory’s government to address water-quality issues.
The bottom line is that Puerto Rico has a wealth of outstanding backcountry/estuarine and flats fishing. Protecting its resources will serve not only the territory and its health, but will also help enhance and ensure the huge economic potential from tourism, certainly including recreational fishing in a big way.
Toward that end, a group of Puerto Rican angling enthusiasts tells me that the use of illegal gill nets in inshore waters is reaching epidemic levels.
“Gill nets are all over the island,” says local angler and conservationist Ramon Ortiz. “They’re forbidden in interior waters, but there’s little to no enforcement.”
To read more click here . . .
