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The fishermen’s champion

Date Posted: Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Author: Christen Pears

“I was born with salt spray in my nostrils. The sea has been my life,” says fisherman Dennis Farias. Born on the cliffs overlooking the South Shore, he spent his childhood fishing in tidal pools. At the age of 14, he made his first trip to the Banks and from there it was a natural progression to a career as a commercial fishermen. He got his first motorboat at the age of 18 and started fishing for grouper, snapper and lobster.

Today, Danny as he’s better known, is a well-known figure in Bermuda due to his high profile political and environmental work. Many people recognize him as one of the handful of white members of the PLP and he stood as a candidate for the party in Devonshire South at the 1993 general election and a 1997 bye-election. He’s a member of the Sustainable Development Round Table and a passionate advocate for Bermuda’s commercial fishermen. A larger-than-life figure, he is often outspoken and holds strong views that he isn’t afraid to back up with action.

These days the Government takes an active interest in the fishing industry. Commercial fishermen now receive duty free fuel and the Department of the Environment is investigating the possibility of establishing longline fishing on the island. But during the 1950s and 60s a laissez-faire attitude prevailed. By the late 1960s Danny was becoming concerned about the groupers species, which were being caught in an unregulated manner by some of his fellow fisherman. Realising the consequences could be disastrous for Bermuda’s marine environment, he was instrumental in the introduction of regulations to protect the island’s fish resources.

He says: “At that time there were pretty close to 5,000 traps and the environment couldn’t take it anymore. Things couldn’t carry on the way they were or fish stocks would have been destroyed.”

He rallied the Bermuda Commercial Fishermen's Association to lobby Government about the thousands of fish and countless more fish eggs which were being destroyed due to overfishing. In April 1971 they presented the Government with a 26-point petition aimed at stopping the destruction. A month later the Government signed the Fisheries Protected Areas Order 1971, which protected fish in the Southwest quadrant and East-North-East quadrant of the Island.

According the Danny, the fishermen suffered in the short term but they knew it was in the long-term interests of both themselves and Bermuda as a whole to protect the marine environment. Unfortunately, the restrictions didn’t have the impact the Government had hoped for and by the 1980s they were looking at other solutions. In 1984 the Fisheries Management and Development Programme attempted to reduce the number of fish pots by 50 per cent by halving the allotment of pots allocated to full-time fishermen. Fishermen who had been working with a large number of pots found their livelihoods under threat. While many complied with the restrictions, there were others who flouted the laws and in 1990 a complete ban on the use of fish pots was introduced by the then Minister of the Environment Ann Cartwright DeCouto. In the past the fishermen had been consulted about regulations but this wasn’t the case with the ban, which they felt ignored their interests.

Those affected were offered compensation but many were financially crippled and Danny became locked in a bitter battle with UBP over the way the ban had been imposed. He was at the forefront of the formation of the Fishermen’s Division of the Bermuda Industrial Union.

“Fishermen in Bermuda have never been held in very high esteem. They’ve always been downtrodden and had to find their own way. It was time for us to stand up for ourselves,” he says.

Willing, as ever, to speak up for what he believed in, he found himself facing arrest but he remained undeterred. The union called for an independent inquiry into the ban and threatened a general strike. The Government reluctantly appointed a commission to report on Bermuda’s fishing industry. When it reported in February 1991, it presented 23 recommendations, including one that the fish pot ban should remain in force. While numbers of some fish, such as parrotfish have increased since the ban, it has not been a complete success and Danny is once again concerned about an impending crisis.

“I’m very proud of what was achieved in the 1970s but we’ve come 360 degrees and we’re now looking at the wholesale destruction of our grouper resource,” he says. He believes that casual fishermen are taking more than their allowance of one black grouper a day. Grouper is always in demand and there is a thriving black market with people catching and selling them illegally to Bermuda’s restaurants.

Conservationist, Jack Ward, who is based at the Bermuda Aquarium, is more optimistic, although he does share some of Danny’s concerns. He says there has a been a resurgence in the species in recent years but there are trends which, if they go unchecked, could threaten Bermuda’s grouper population.

He says: “One thing that has become very common recently is for people to be out trawling for black groupers. There are a lot of regulations surrounding this species but they are probably being abused, although it’s hard to say to what extent. The commercial industry certainly has the perception that there are a lot of non-commercial entities fishing for groupers and although the wardens do board vessels, there is still an argument that more enforcement is desirable.”

Danny is in no doubt as to where the danger lies. “The problem is that there are more casual than commercial fishermen and they think they are above the regulations. I don’t begrudge anyone catching fish but they have to stick to the rules. Unfortunately there aren’t enough fisheries wardens to enforce them,” he says. “Our marine resources are more precious than oil. I hope that the Government does something to protect them because if they don’t we will lose this resource, which we should be looking after for future generations.”

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