RD$ 250 for each fish caught!!!!

Does this mean any fish? Like colorado (snapper) etc.???

What about all the officials who have boats???

I guess this place is getting nuts the serious way! I can not think of any country where you have to pay that much taxes on a boat or catch!

Thats probably why they cancelled the 28' (mental home) over here, its getting to be one all over the place!

Good help us as there is no help to be expected from here!

Henry

To place a financial burden such as this on a VERY weak and juvenile industry such as sport fishing will sound it's death knell; all under the guise of protecting the environment. The idiot that proposed this ridiculous law(under Minister Frank Pons' ageis, no doubt) is only half as stupid as the government that passed it.
The big news in the past several weeks has been the mega-marina in Punta Cana, the loosening of the Marina de Guerre's antiquated cruising restrictions and other promotion of the marine industry.

And now this.

This is a classic example of aiming at the moon, and shooting yourself in the toe.

Andy, in the newspapers, I did not see the part about $250 tax for each fish caught. Perhaps there is a positive side to that. If it just applied to billfish, it would encourage catch and release. If it applied to all fish (Grouper (Mero), Wahoo, King Mackerel, Dorado, etc., it would be a disaster.

What they need to do is pull all of the gill nets that are in front of the Mangroves all over the country and then, pull all of the fish traps that catch everything, most of which die in the traps before they are pulled.

The $250 fee per fish was covered on DR1 news a few days ago and the $250rd fee even applied to spearfishermen according to the article.

With the fee only applied to billfish, it probably would help encourage catch and release, but my experience has been that a first time catcher of of billfish generally wants to bring it back to the dock and bask in the limelight. On the other hand, many experienced anglers are content to release the fish unless it is being kept for food.

And you're absolutely right about the nets. When we banned gill net fishing in Florida about 6 years ago, not only did the inshore fishing vastly improve, but offshore as well!

The fish traps are also a serious problem as you so rightly pointed out. I noticed the other day that they are now trapping in over 300' of water. There's nothing left in shallow waters.

To lay the blame for the decline in fish stocks on the sportfishing industry is another lie. The sportfishermen don't account for 10% of the fish taken, it's the commercial boys who are wiping it out with nets and longlines and then pointing the finger at the highly visable sportfishing boats. And until the DR patrols its waters and enforces conservation rules, it will continue to decline, probably to the point where the tourist sportfishing industry will die.

We had a situation recently in Monte Cristi where the environmental people pulled the fish traps. The local fishermen went on a rampage, destroyed a pick-up truck at the government offices in the park area then had a strike in town, blocking the road from the beach to town. I was stranded at Club Nautico because of it. I wonder if we could get enough enthuiasm to hold that kind of protest? The government would probably shoot us!