22136: Khelladi: [Fwd: [cerninfo] Illegal Dolphin captures in Haiti?] (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Yacine Khelladi <yacine@yacine.net>



The following is reposted from the Caribbean bio-diversity mailing list
FYI.
____

The individuals participating in this originally tried to hide this
fact by
claiming that they were going to "raise snapper" in the cages.  I, as
well as
many fishers in the area were concerned (and suspicious) of this from
the start.

The Minister of Environment of Haiti is aware and has promised to look
into
this.  This, however, does not mean that letters of concern should not
continue
to be sent in order to keep this as an urgent matter.

Also, the director of the fisheries department at the Ministry of
Agriculture
is most certainly aware of this and has perhaps even given his
approval.  The
Haitian environmental laws regarding fisheries clearly states in Article
97/line f: that "...no one is allowed to hunt/fish dolphins..." (and
many other
kinds of sea life) "...without special authorization from the director
of the
fisheries department...".  The fact that this same director has also
given
permission to others to harvest coral and "live rock" (and even used
the ministry's
pickup truck to help them haul it away), despite the fact that it is
clearly
not permitted in any way shape or form by Article 100 , is certainly
not an
encouraging scenario for the dolphins.

Jean W. Wiener
Director
Fondation pour la Protection de la Biodiversite Marine
FoProBiM
Haiti
<<>>
jeanw@foprobim.org
www.foprobim.org