Agriculture Minister Michael Pintard told reporters yesterday that he was taken aback by the Bahamas National Trust’s concerns that officials are exploring the expansion of commercial fishing to include pelagic species like tuna.

The minister assured, however, that there has been no such conversation.

He said, “neither administration is prepared to reverse the decision made. We do not support longline fishing or any other unsafe fishing practices.” 

He added, “we are committed to exploring new revenue streams for the fisheries sector that includes examining different pelagic species to see which of them might in fact be feasible for us to harvest.”

The Minister said the objective is to allow science to dictate the government’s plans moving forward. 

He said, “any species we look at, we look at what the international protocols are. Secondly, we’ll look at the stock and determine whether or not it is at a sufficient level that we can sustainably harvest it and sell it locally and internationally.”

He added, “ there would be a stakeholder consultation. So, we’ve met with all the NGO’s inclusive of the BNT and there has not been any issues that we have been on a separate page.”

The Minister said the goal is to facilitate local empowerment.

He also mentioned that quite several species are set to be discussed within the ministry soon.