Community spirit shines during marine disaster

Antigua had a tragedy unfold on Sunday when a 24 foot fishing boat with two adults and two little children sank off shore. There was some confusion about where they went down and without an EPIRB the search party had to guess where they might have been. Darkness fell and they had not been found. Some boats searching out there refused to come in. Some of our friends and crew helped us get fueled up using jerry cans and we set off after 2 am. It was a long night for those of us out there searching but of course nothing like the night that the little boys and the adults were having out there cold and wet. By dawn when I took this photo east of Antigua, dozens of other boats joined the search along with Caribbean helicopters, and two fixed wing planes. We tried not to all look at the same place and after 7AM a cooler was found drifting by some friends on the north side of Antigua. They stayed with it to determine its drift direction. Then they gave directions to the plane and in no time the capsized boat with the four survivors were found. It was an amazing result which really showed the type of community spirit we have here in Antigua. The concern and care was overwhelming. So many volunteered to help and offer resources. This kind of positivity fueled optimism at a time when so many people were feeling despair. The kids and adults are recovering well, and so many others delighted with the result.
Www.AdventureAntigua.com

Our local electricity provider gets cut off for non payment.

This just was posted on the APUA (Antigua Public Utilities Authority) Facebook page:

The Antigua Power Company (APC), independent power producer, on October 12th advised the Authority that as a result of outstanding payments owed to them by APUA amounting to
$36,862,310.70 EC, it will be suspending power generation at its 50.9 mega watt power plant at the Crabbs Peninsula. This plant usually supplies 11 mega watts to the power grid.
To date however, APC has carried through with this threatened action and has gone beyond this in suspending generation at their Black Pine facility at the Crabbs Peninsula as well. They
have therefore reduced their usual supply of 34.5 mega watts to the grid to 16 mega watts as of 9:00 am this morning. They have informed the utility that they will further reduce this supply by 11 mega watts by 2:00 pm and the remaining 5 mega watts will be withdrawn by 4:00 pm unless the outstanding payment owed to them in its entirety is remitted. This has a severe impact on the provision of power to the Antiguan public as APC usually supplies 61% of the daily power demand. The Board of Commissioners and management have sought to bring this matter to the immediate attention of Antiguan and Barbudan consumers.
Currently the daily peak demand for power in Antigua is 51 mega watts. This action by APC has forced APUA to rely solely on its own generating capacity, which can currently supply 20 mega watts to the grid. This shortfall has forced load-shedding activities and consumers are asked to be prepared. The APUA Board of Commissioners and Management would like the public to know that this is being treated as the highest priority, and will provide updates as this situation develops.

Brother B (hilson baptiste), minister of fisheries has to be joking!

After years of complaining about the lack of action seen with regard to enacting new fisheries regulations, The Antigua Conservations Society started an online petition (seen here) to request help from the Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Baldwin Spencer. The news of this petition spread like fire and within a few days the Minister of Fisheries said that he would sign the regulations after more consultations. This was met with mixed feelings by the ACS for two reasons. 1) The Fisheries Act which was passed years before after a monumental amount of consultations with fishers and stakeholders provided regulations which were sitting at the minister's desk for years. It seemed to be a time wasting effort to have the same process done once again ignoring all the data that had been collected already which resulted in the very same regulations still sitting on his desk. 2) It was also felt that these consultations were just another in a long series of games played by the Fisheries Minister in an effort to make sure that the new act wasn't past. How would these new consultations be designed to get a different outcome?

Well the new rounds of lengthy consultations earlier this summer were managed by the Chief Fisheries officer and her team both here in Antigua and in Barbuda. Hundreds of hours or work eventually culminated months later in a new set of regulations which finally were sent to the minister for him to sign late last week. Today, a reporter asked Minister Baptiste when the regulations which were given to him by his Chief Fisheries officer were going to be signed. His reply was astonishing! He said that before he signs, there needs to be more consultations. Once again the work and effort done by the fisher folk of Antigua and Barbuda together with the Fisheries Department isn't good enough? Who is he going to consult with now? The Japanese? There doesn't need to be any consultations at all just a signature which will see a slight change in the way our marine resources are managed so that they may be there for generations to come. Too bad for them!

There you have it ladies and gentlemen. Our marine resources are being rapidly depleted and our Minister continues to stall much needed protection measures. It's time for a change and not just in terms of regulations!!!

Online campaign on fisheries matters produces fantastic results.

As many readers of my blogs know, the 2006 Fisheries Act has been sitting languishing with the Minister of Fisheries, waiting for him to sign off on the accompanying regulations. While awaiting this evasive signature, unsustainable fishing methods continue to prevail in our marine environment. The total lack of marine management remains incredibly disappointing. Time and time again highly educated and knowledgeable fisheries officers have been quoted as saying "our hands are tied until we have signed regulations". The call to have these regulations signed has come from far and wide within the community mainly because of the situation we are seeing out on the water, but also because the document in questions and it's regulations were developed after consultations with fishers, their associations, environmental groups and other stakeholders. We were all just waiting for the Fisheries Minister's signature. The Antigua Conservations Society decided that all of these stakeholders had done enough complaining about the situation without getting a result. We had all read enough articles in Caribarena.com and in the Daily Observer about the situation and we had all heard stakeholders on the radio being interviewed. The island was fed up with wrongs not being made right with lobster fishing, with parrot fish netting, with conch fishing, and with all the other types of uncontrolled over fishing. We felt that there was no doubt that we needed to take it all to the next level. Our first step was starting a simple online campaign with change.org which attempted to collect signatures petitioning the Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda to get involved. It "went viral" here in Antigua and the media seemed to love the concept and more and more "buzz" only helped the cause. Within a short time we reached 2000 signatures to Prime Minister, Baldwin Spencer begging him to get involved in order to save our reefs and marine eco systems.
It wasn't long before we saw results. Minister Hilson Baptiste who is minister of Environment, Minister of Fisheries, Minister of Lands, Housing and Agriculture was interviewed saying that he was doing something about the situation and would in fact sign the Fisheries Act's Regulations, but first he was instructing his Chief Fisheries Officer to organize consultations on the regulations once again. Although there was some disappointment due to the fact that these consultations had happened before, it was action nonetheless. As it turned out, the consultations initiated by the Minister went very well. The Antigua Conservation Society was represented at the meetings by Fran Fuller, who had at one time represented the country and the Minister at climate change conferences around the world while working within the Ministry of Environment. Fran reported that the consultations went very well, and she felt that the Fisheries did a very good job of facilitating this fresh round of talks.
There were several sessions including sessions in Barbuda, and stakeholders from both across both islands offered input which as it turns out only made the regulations stronger. The new contributions from stakeholders only served to confirm that stronger protection measures are indeed needed and welcomed by a wide cross section of the community. Yesterday I spoke with Chief Fisheries officer, Cheryl Appleton, who confirmed what Fran has said about these consultations. She said it was fishermen who called for stronger regulations than the ones which had been sitting unsigned on the Minister's desk, and I got the feeling that she was very enthusiastic about the change that has happened. According to Mrs. Appleton, The Minister is eager to sign off on the new regulations just as he said he would in the recent interview. She says that he will have it all delivered to him by the end of this week. This is fantastic news and goes to show that we can make a difference here on this little island with just a little effort. The Antigua Conservation Society, our supporters, and all the 2300 people who signed the petition in the hope of getting the Fisheries Regulations have all made a difference, and we should be happy that the Minister is moving in the right direction. It looks like step one of our campaign may have been was all that was needed for now. It remains to be seen if the regulations will come into effect as promised and the ACS will remain vigilant, but for now the Minister seems to be doing the right thing and many of us feel good about the momentum that is pushing this important issue forward.

tracking lionfish in antigua

Several years ago I blogged that the lionfish were probably here already (read here) and there is now no doubt that they were. Within two years we are getting reports from around the island of Antigua of lionfish sightings. In order to protect our fishery and our important dive and snorkeling sites we need to be very proactive on how we track them and how we kill them. There was a great article in today's Daily Observer about the lionfish and more importantly about protecting our marine resources overall. Click here for that article. I have decided to try and keep track of sightings using Google Maps. What I plan to do is to invite any dive or snorekling operator as well as fishermen and other parties that would likely see lionfish regularly to sign up as users on a Map that i have created. They then can input lionfish sightings on the map with a date and a short explanation saying if they left the fish in the water or killed it. Anyone who isn't signed up with this map can still view it and can call me on +1 268 725 7263 if they have seen a lionfish. I will add the sighting and a date to the map. I think this is the first good step in getting a good idea on what's going on. Of course there is much more that can be done, but this is a good tool to keep track of the populations of lionfish. Remember these fish can be dangerous if not handled correctly. Make sure you do your research before you attempt to kill one. If you need more info please contact me on eliantigua@gmail.com Here is the map:
View Lionfish Tracking Antigua & Barbuda in a larger map

18 million US dollars of Government Dept in exchange for what coastal protection??

This photo below shows some of the legally designated Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) that Antigua and Barbuda currently has. Some of them were set up in the early 70s and up to now I don't know of any area within these huge expanses of "prtotected" waters that is being actively managed in any way. We see so many types of invasive non sustainable fishing methods daily within these MPAs and whenever our politicians speak of environmental protection I just laugh. Recently tears came to my eyes when I heard that our government was boasting about wiping off 18 million dollars of debt in some sort of environmental trade with Brazil. The Minister responsible says that Brazil is forgiving the debt because he and his government have promised to protect the marine coastline. There are more questions than answers with this one to be honest.

Here is a excerpt taken from The Antigua Observer:

Baptiste told the CARDI consultation that he was able to further reduce the debt to $18 million after talks in Rio in June with that country’s finance minister, Guido Mantega.
“We were introduced to a climate change organisation (The Nature Conservancy) and we are getting involved in a debt for climate adaptation swap,” Minister Baptiste said.
“We will get the climate change people to pay off the $18 million for us while we get vigorously involved in coastal zone management in Antigua & Barbuda.”

Read more here. As you can see, it's not very specific to be honest. Caribarena.com wrote another piece today questioning what exactly this all meant:

However, when Caribarena.com contacted Senior Environment Officer Ruleta Camacho and her Chief Environment Officer Diann Black-Layne, neither could share any information on the $18 million initiative.

According to Wendy Tittle, Press Secretary for Minister Baptiste, too many details cannot be divulged about the proposed initiative at this time, as the ministry is “still waiting on some documents.”

Read more: http://www.caribarena.com/antigua/environment/environment/101065-firewall-surrounds-debt-for-climate-change-project.html#ixzz20npS74Ye

My problem with all of this talk is that as the photo above shows, we already have huge areas of coastline in our country which is protected under law and on paper but not actually in practice. I hope that the Brazilian tax payers and The Nature Conservancy are not as complacent as we are here in Antigua and Barbuda. I hope they actually are going to make sure that some sort of visible marine protection goes on here. We don't have any marine patrols at all here in Antigua for all of the area that sits in Marine Protected Areas and without the 2006 Fisheries Act having any signed regulations, the "fishing free for all" continues. The marine environment is under more strain than it has ever been under and while our government ministers slap themselves on the back our our marine resources dwindle and become extinct. Protect the Marine Protected Areas and stop talking!!!!!!!!!!

Eli Fuller's response to quotes made by Hilson Baptiste, Fisheries Minister of Antigua.

Today's Daily Observer newspaper had an article today which covered comments made by Fisheries Minister, Hilson Baptise, where he says a number of extremely confusing things relating to our petition to the Prime Minster.

Essentially, I am the spokesperson for the Antigua Conservation Society and have been interviewed by www.caribarena.com and also by The Daily Observer about a petition to Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer that we have started. The petition asks the PM to take action to get the draft Fisheries Regulations signed. They have been languishing on the desk of the Fisheries Minster's desk for five years. These regulations are attached to a Fisheries Act 2004 which was developed with input from fishers and the various stakeholders prior to it going before this government all those years ago. The reason we are petitioning the PM is that the Fisheries Minister can't seem to get the regulations signed for some reason which we can't quite understand.

There has been calls for these regulations to be signed from the various stakeholders here locally for years and there has also been pressure from international groups as well. Why? Well we are currently using the 1983 Fisheries Act to protect our marine resources and those resources have taken and are currently taking a serious beating. There is pressure on every aspect of our marine resources and there are many fishing methods being used out on the reef by commercial fishermen that are totally unsustainable. Many endangered species are being fished out right before our eyes and despite urgent calls from many stakeholders and the technical people within the Fisheries Ministry including the chief Fisheries Officer, nothing happens. The Act is sitting in limbo. For more on the rules and regulations we are using currently and the ones that are still sitting waiting to be signed click here.

Anyway, our petition to the PM has generated huge interest and has gotten many people speaking about it in the media and beyond. We have about 1800 signatures on our petition and we expect to get the remaining 200 to make up our goal of 2000 within a few days. We will keep it going though until we see some results. In the meantime, we expect to deliver the signatures to the PM after we get our 2000 goal.

In today's paper, the confusing statements that Baptiste made are as follows:

1) He says that the petition is a waste of time.

If this is the case, why is he falling over himself now to say that he is going to have it signed all of a sudden?

2) He says that it couldn't have happened before because he has been traveling for the past two weeks.

Two weeks??? What about the past five years? These regulations have been sitting on his desk for ages. This isn't anything new at all.

3) He says that the criticism over the past few months because not enough was done about the terrible state of the marine resources is "politically motivated" and that we have an agenda.

This couldn't be further from the truth. Nothing I have written over the past month on the lack of action on signing off on the Fisheries Regulations has had any hint of politics. The Antigua Conservation's Facebook page and it's petition on change.org has no political undertones or language at all. We do have an agenda though and that is to get the fisheries regulations signed as they are now.

4) Another thing he says is that he is going to get a committee set up to discuss the regulations to make sure that only the best regulations are approved. He goes on to say that he will only approve the regulations which the committee of stakeholders all agree on and are regulations that they can agree to adhere to. “As I speak to you I am putting a committee together to go over the regulations to ensure that everybody agrees and are willing to comply with it,” he said.

How does any of that make sense? There are huge problems with this because as this document clearly demonstrates (click here) there have been consultations with the stakeholders. In fact, there have been many, and there is no need to step backward and revert to more consultations. It was consultations that ended up helping to get the Fisheries Act of 2004 drafted and then the Fisheries regulations drafted also. A committee filled with stakeholders will only cause the Fisheries Act to get buried if not scrapped. A talk shop is not what is needed at this point! What is needed is for the minister to sign on the dotted line. In addition, why would the Minister consider only the "best regulations" which "everyone agrees with and are willing to comply with.."? This would be like asking the bankers on Wall Street to sit on a committee to decide on what regulations should be imposed upon them and telling them that only laws that they agree with and are willing to comply with will be considered. See why this may be a problem?

An edited version of the newspaper story can be found by clicking here. You have to laugh at the comments. Anyway, as you can see, this issue isn't an easy one and there is good reason that we are petitioning the Prime Minister. Please sign the petition and join the ACS on facebook. If the petition doesn't work, we may have to go to plan B and then C. We will get some changes for sure because the future of our marine resources is sitting in the balance.

Dear Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer, you must take simple action to save our reefs!

netted parrotfish by the thousands taken from the reefs

In the past five days 1400 people have signed a petition to the Prime Minister of Antigua & Barbuda. The petition has been organized by The Antigua Conservation Society and asks for the PM's help in getting the 2004 Fisheries Act signed by the Fisheries Minister who for one reason or another has not done so for years. While the Act sits languishing on his desk, the marine eco systems of Antigua and Barbuda have suffered tremendously. We are still working with legislation from the early 80s. This 2004 Fisheries Act was carefully drawn up after consultations and input with the major stakeholders including but not limited to The Fishermen's Cooperative, The Sports Fishing Association, and The Environmental Awareness Group.

Change.org|Free Online Petitions

There are way too many areas of our coastal environment that are being neglected simply because there are no laws that can help them. The Chief Fisheries Officer is quoted time and time again as saying that her hands are tied until the regulations are signed. The person who need to sign it told me and others who were meeting him one day when he was Junior Minister of Tourism that he can't swim and has no interest at all going out on the water on any boat. This doesn't mean he isn't capable of understanding the issues here, but I can't help feel that he doesn't. Article after article is published like this one today featured in The Daily Observer: St. John’s Antigua- Having almost ravaged the fishing stock off Antigua, Barbuda-based marine biologist John Mussington says fishermen are now looking to employ their harmful practices on the sister isle. Their primary target: the parrot fish, which Mussington revealed, fishers are going at great lengths to capture. “That particular category of fishermen they cleaned out all the reefs in Antigua.” “The guys, not Antiguans, come and they set their gill nets and camp out on the shores over here. They target the parrot fish alone and there have been reports that they are using bleach to hunt them,” the marine biologist said. According to Mussington, when the foreign fishermen catch fish that is not the parrot fish, they dispose of them on the beaches of Barbuda. The fishermen try their best to avoid local fishers, Mussington told OBSERVER Media, plying their harmful trade when local fishermen have retired for the day. He said several attempts including calling the Coast Guard for assistance have been employed to try to stop the fish invasion off Barbuda. “People in Barbuda have tried to confiscate the nets, but it’s a losing battle. They apparently have official blessings for what they are going.” The problem has persisted for about two years, but Mussington disclosed that efforts to use bad fishing practices off the island have intensified in recent months. “Just yesterday, I received a report from a fisherman who is frustrated over here,” Mussington said adding that several reports have been made to the police. The concerns by the marine biologist comes on the heels of a Fisheries Division study which found that urgent action is needed to save the parrot fish from the gill-netting and spare fishing practices. In response to the anxiety over the local fisheries stock, the Antigua Conservation Association commissioned an online petition to force government to sign off on fisheries regulations that would aid in the protection of the marine eco-systems. Despite articles like these being written, despite desperate calls from The Fishermens Cooperative, which is the biggest association of fishermen, despite calls from all the Environmental Groups, his own Chief Fisheries Officer, and many others, Hilson Babtiste still doesn't sign it. 8000 lbs of parrotfish, almost as many reef snappers and reef groupers are being exported through the Fisheries Department to the French islands. Remember that parrotfish are the key species keeping our reefs healthy by cleaning the coral damaging algae with each fish producing about 180 lbs of sand a year. Healthy parrotfish populations mean healthy reefs and plenty of sand production. Also with healthy reefs there is less wave action and currents getting to our shores and causing beach erosion. More on parrotfish by clicking this link. As you have just read the Daily Observer article, you can see that The Fisheries Ministry knows that the parrotfish are in trouble, but for some reason they still are permitting them to be decimated through the use of huge gill nets which fishermen put along the east coast of our shores just outside the reef. We are at a tipping point, a tipping point that the cod fishermen of the North Atlantic went beyond and destroyed their own industry and way of live. Many species here including parrotfish are in danger of being wiped out due to the lack of fisheries management and stronger regulations. The 2004 Fisheries Act needs to be signed. You can help. You have spent longer reading this blog than it takes to sign the petition. The Prime Minister of our nation will see your signature and will see your comment if you leave one. Please take a moment to sign it, and as important as signing it is sharing it with your email and facebook contacts. There are a few key points which come to mind that make the new fisheries act way better than the old outdated one. The new regulations will change quite a few things which include: Stricter measures for conservation of key species: Lobster – now introduces regulations against removing "tar spot" …something that is now practiced because of EU requirements that lobsters with tar shouldn’t be shipped but for which there is no regulation under the current Fisheries regs. Also introduces closed season for lobster Conch – introduces closed season and stronger penalties for fishermen who harvest undersized conch. Turtles – hawksbills and leatherbacks would be fully protected. Greens may be allowed for capture (if an open season is declared) but with a maximum size limit as opposed to minimum size limit (as per WIDECAST recommendation) Also specifically prohibits harassment of nesting females and take of hatchlings and allows for declaration of protected turtle nesting beaches. Permitting requirements for other species that are not currently managed. e.g. Whelks, cockle and urchins.. Fishers would also need to request permits to harvest certain species. So it is not automatic that once you are a fisher you can harvest anything. It's quite possible that there could be permits for parrotfish (chub fish). Now regulates fishing inland (in ponds and dams). Better controls over gear Nets – the old act only sets regulations on seines…nothing for gill nets. With the new regs there are size restrictions on mesh, prohibition of multi-panel nets and restriction on soak time. The use of any gear not specifically regulated under the Act would need the permission of the CFO. Sets controls for sport fishing The most significant change with the new regulations is that we move to license fishers…not just the boats. And it sets requirements that anyone who wishes to be licensed must undergo some sort of training (to include sessions on conservation). In doing this the regulations also allows for licenses of fishers who break the laws to be suspended from fishing (penalties get progressively higher for repeat offenses). It also allows the Chief Fisheries Officer to refuse a license if there are grounds. New entrants to the fishery would be subject to a probationary period. This will hopefully allow us to catch under the net the people who swim out or use jet skis etc. Other things are: -providing way stiffer penalties for people who break the law as right now the penalties are not worth pursuing in the legal system. -giving the fisheries department more control of fisheries issues instead of having most of the control sitting in the hands of the minister. We have to get this thing signed by the Fisheries Minister as it's the first step on a road to a better marine environment and a better shot at having our fishing industry managed in a sustainable way so that generations of fishers to come may find something to fish for. Please sign the petition to Hon. Baldwin Spencer:

Please sign this letter to Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer and help save the reefs

Change.org|The Proven Petition Site

"You will get your money's worth by booking this excursion!"

Pirateslifeforme00

1 review

“Extreme circumnavigation...”

Reviewed June 8, 2012 NEW

We visited Antigua as part of a cruise ship itinerary. We booked the Extreme Circumnavigation excursion through Expedia. The boat was just a 3 minute walk from the pier, easy to find based on the directions in the conformation email.

You will get your money's worth by booking this excursion! Our captain was Ross, with Jordain and Trevor our crew. Very nice guys, very knowledgeable, very laid back. The tour was thorough and a beautiful opportunity for pics. It made me want to fly to Antigua and spend my whole vacation there--skip the cruise itinerary!! What a gorgeous place. I expected sting ray city to be crowded with other tours but we were the only group there so everyone had plenty of time with the rays. I was skeptical about lunch but the beach we spent time on was gorgeous and the food was pretty good, and there was plenty of it! Nelson's dockyard was full of history and another great opportunity for pics. Pillars of Hercules were a beautiful site and the snorkeling was top notch.

My only warning is that this is a LONG day and there are no bathroom facilities ladies! We were dead tired by the time we got done so be prepared, they pack in every activity they promise. Bring plenty of sunblock for reapplying.

www.adventureantigua.com

Some fun photos of our sailing day trip off Antigua yesterday

These Instagram photos were taken yesterday on my phone while we were out on a Classic Yacht Day Tour. The winds were blowing hard and after snorkeling and lunch up in Carlisle Bay we flew downwind outside Cades Reef to Pinchin Bay for some lovely beach time. Enjoy the photos and come out with us one of these days.

www.adventureantigua.com

Will the Chinese wipe out Antigua and Barbuda's lobster?

Over the past month there has been considerable media attention on the subject of certain Chinese businessmen orchestrating a massive monthly purchase and export of spiny lobster. (Click here if you want to know more about spiny lobster)
In a nutshell, these businessmen are providing boats, scuba gear and fishing equipment to fishermen here in Antigua and Barbuda in exchange to the exclusive rights to purchase this lobster from them at an elevated price than the current market price. The cost of the equipment is slowly subtracted from the payments so essentially the whole agreement is a sort of financing agreement. The deal for fishermen is irresistible.

The first big complaint in the media came from the hotel sector which became enraged when they couldn't get their usual supply of lobster. The Chinese were paying more for lobster and taking any amount supplied, so there was none being offered to the hotels. They were upset.

The second complaint came from one of the oldest lobster wholesalers here who for decades has been the biggest buyer and seller of lobster. He complained that he couldn't afford to pay as much as the Chinese for the lobster. His supply dried up and he was upset. 

The third complaint came from supermarkets and other local sources of consumption who could no longer get lobster to buy. For the first time since it opened Epicurean Supermarket has an empty lobster tank.

Recently I have heard complains against the businesses that are selling to fishermen who are being financed by the Chinese lobster mafia. They feel that it's wrong for some reason for local business to accept money loaned to fishermen from these Chinese lobster men. 

Then with all the media outcry and the calls coming in to the radio stations I started to hear more and more people complaining about the "Chinese and dem tekking all d lobster and nar left none for ahwee". Passions have run high and have even bordered on being viewed as xenophobic in some of the arguments. I say that because the focus seems to be on the notion that the Chinese are doing something wrong. All the comments are focused on the Chinese and not at all on the fisheries policy that has permitted non national entrepreneurs to capitalize on the fishery. It's not just Chinese either. One of the biggest seafood merchants in Antigua is a Syrian and most of the commercial fishing for parrot fish and lobster is being done these days by fishermen from Dominica and the Dominican Republic. Lets not even talk about the tons of fish that is caught in our waters by the French from Guadeloupe. Sustainable fishing has never been visible on the ground or in the water.

This concern that our nation's lobster stock being decimated by Chinese interests could be dealt with fairly easily I think. Once again it boils down to passing of the Fisheries Act and it's regulations and then enforcing them. This is a problem that has again and again been blamed for most of the marine conservation issues. Antigua & Barbuda are some of the only islands in the Caribbean that do not have a carefully managed closed season. Also, there doesn't seem to be any limits on catch or on export quantity. Essentially with enough money and resources, the Chinese could legally wipe out all of Antigua and Barbuda's lobster while using licensed fishermen who they finance/contract. They could do the same thing for almost all of our seafood to be honest. Just today my sister came across a group of Chinese men fishing along the Shell Beach main road. They had buckets of tiny Queen Conch (an endangered species) as well as buckets of starfish. This large group of Chinese are here working on the airport expansion and knowing that there is no fisheries management they play off their ignorance of the law and do as they like. That could be another blog entry i guess.

The issue at hand is the decimation of our lobster stock by local fishermen for Chinese consumption, and as I mentioned to fix it, our Fisheries Minster and his Chief Fisheries Officer need to work together in the interest of all of the citizens of the nation and get those regulations off the desk and into law. The interesting thing is that we even with all the media attenton and public interest we have not heard anything officially from them. This is not a problem with the Chinese, but rather a problem with the management of our fishery and the way that our fishermen utilize it. Currently the way seafood is harvested here is not sustainable, and if nothing is done there is no doubt in my mind that the only lobster my son will ever see will be in photos of them that I took before he was born.

I think it's time for action because writing and speaking about this doesn't seem to make any difference to the people making the decisions. I think we need to somehow be a bit louder. Does anyone else think it's time for an actual protest demonstration?

Other similar blog posts by me:

http://antiguaisland.blogspot.com/2011/08/french-fishermen-threaten-us-while-we.html 

http://antiguaisland.blogspot.com/2011/03/most-important-and-threatened-fish-in.html

http://antiguaisland.blogspot.com/2009_06_19_archive.html

http://www.365antigua.com/cms/content/green-environment-gill-nets-threaten-antigua-barbudas-waters


http://antiguaisland.blogspot.com/2011/07/chinese-lights-start-killing-turtles-in.html

Want to catch a blue marlin? Join us in the Antigua Sport Fishing Tournament.

Each year Adventure Antigua sends at least one of our boats to the Annual Sports Fishing Tournament here in Antigua. We have always done well and few boats have released as many marlin as our boat Xtreme has done. These days the price of fuel has limited our trips into the deep, and we have done far fewer international tournaments as well. However, there is one tournament that we try to do each year, and it's this annual one when many boats target Marlin. Last year was the first time that Adventure Antigua attempted to offset the costs associated with the tournament by taking on anglers who contributed financially. We didn't have a charter per say but each angler paid his fair share. Once again this year we are looking to do the same. Anyone who is interested in hooking up to a big marlin and fighting it to the boat so we can release it should give us a call or text. Contact me on my mobile +1 268 725 7263. For more info on the fishing and the tournament please check the link above. Here is a little compilation of video bits from the tournament last year.
www.adventureantigua.com

An Antiguan in "The Everest of sailing" once again. The Volvo Ocean Race

The Volvo Ocean Race is considered the Everest of sailing and fellow Antiguan and friend, Shannon Falcone, has done the race around the world once before. But that wasn't the highlight of his professional sailing career. After crewing on the winning America's Cup boat in the last cup challenge he has been training for the next cup and spending more time in Antigua than he has been able to in recent years. A few weeks ago he was asked to come back to the Volvo Ocean Race once again to replace an injured crew member. Their Puma sponsored boat is leading the Brazil to Miami leg and will pass close to Antigua in a few days. For more on the race click here: http://www.volvooceanrace.com/en/the_race/1_Overview.html and for more on where the boats are in real time check here: http://www.volvooceanrace.com/en/racetracker/rdc.html and for more on one of Antigua's top sportsmen ever check here: http://www.volvooceanrace.com/en/news/5923_Falcone-gets-his-PUMA-boots-on.html

Hope you find it interesting. eli

Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta

After four days of racing in various conditions and courses, Adventure Antigua's team Zemi wins in the Traditional Class. We had a huge team which reached 14 people in two of the races.  

  

After our engine was installed by A1 Marine in Jolly Harbour we had to do some rigging changes before the regatta and they were completed just in time for the race. With only minutes to spare, Itano, Jason and I managed to get to the Antigua Yacht Club on Wednesday. On thursday a few of us got together and went out to test the rig and see how Zemi felt. It was the first time we had sailed properly since last year. We had won our class in the regatta then, but the winds had been exceptionally light. Our sail on Thursday was fine and the boat felt good with the extra lead ballast that i had just purchased from a local scrap metal business. I took a photo of my truck deep inside the scrap metal place when I was about to collect the lead the Tuesday before. My sister Fran was going to be joining us for the regatta so she came out on the practice sail with us: All of the wooden Caribbean vessels sailing in the Traditional class of the regatta bunched up together between the Turtle Surf Shop and the Skullduggery Bar on the Antigua Yacht Club Marina. Half of them seen here: The first race was on Friday and our start was actually just after 10 am. We had two crew coming in from Tortola in the British Virgin Islands at the very last minute and they were bringing uniforms. Andy Morrell and his son Josh run HIHO which is a high end clothing company (check it out) and our team was going to look sharp if they arrived with the loot. In fact, HIHO is one of the sponsors of Antigua Sailing Week which starts here at the end of this week. Anyway, they arrived, jumped on board Zemi and we cast off our lines. The race was starting shortly, and we needed to get everyone set up (and suited up).

The Royal Police Force of Antigua and Barbuda provided air rifles for the race committee, so i can't say the races started with a bang. Needless to say, it was quite funny hearing about that mess up on the radio. Anyway, the race started and Zemi was off. Our boat has more sail area than the others and the light winds of the first race were in our favor. We slowly pulled ahead. On the broad reach we had our spinnaker up which gave us a slightly bigger lead. When it was time to drop this sail in preparation for our sail back upwind, something went wrong. The line holding the sail to the top of the mast was jammed. There was nothing we could do but sail upwind with about four of the crew trying to bunch the sail up around the mast. Spinnakers are sails that don't go upwind and that's where we were headed. Thankfully the winds were light and the sail didn't get ripped out of the hands of our crew and torn to shreds. We were going directly for the rocks at Winter Hill and had to tack with this sail which was another challenge. Then there were other yachts which had right or way coming toward us. We had to "duck" them, still with this sail dangling from the top of the mast. Finally a decision was made to send one of the crew up to the top of the mast. Out came the bosun's chair and up the mast Jason went with a knife! The sail was finally cut down, but we had to get it fixed, and in no time we were sending Nikolai back up to get it prepped for the next time we had to use it. Here is a pic of Nik way up at the top while we were racing: Here he is on his way back down:

With this kind of team work we were able to finish enough ahead to beat the second place boat by under a minute on corrected time after the handicap had been worked out. Here is some of the team celebrating our win back at the dock:

More on the rest of the Classic Yacht Regatta tomorrow.

Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta 2012

As you know we offer a classic yacht tour, and each year we try and compete in the Traditional Class of the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta. The first year we entered on the brand new Ocean Nomad with paint still drying on the deck we finished second. The next year we finished first. I didn't race again until last year and this time it was on our new Carriacou Sloop, Zemi with paint still drying once again. We finished first and were delighted. Since then Zemi has not been sailing once and has sat in Jolly Harbour slowly getting an engine installed. It's finally in there and operational. She is now able to get in and out of harbours without sailing. Ocean Nomad is the older of our two sailing vessels and has been out of commission for the past month while her mast was repaired. She may be ready to sail in the regatta which starts on Friday which means that Adventure Antigua will have two boats in the Classic Yacht Regatta.

I will be skippering Zemi again this year, and over the next few days I will be strengthening the rig and finding some more ballast. In last years race we knew she was under ballasted which means she didn't have enough lead below deck to keep her steady in the water during heavier winds. Luckily the winds were light last year and it worked to our advantage.

This year will be different if the forecast continues as it is right now with winds getting up to 22 mph. We have to have more ballast otherwise we will not be able to sail fast and will spent plenty of time over on our sides! Lead is what we need, but if we can't find it we will be looking for anything else. We have three days to get it below deck and register the boat. Among the team sailing with us this year we have Andy Morrell of HIHO with his son Josh. This means that Adventure Antigua's team Zemi will have some nice clothing to race with for a few days. We also have an old team mate from Scotland sailing with us. Harry Ingram didn't sail across the Atlantic this time but took the quick flight here for the regatta. He will be leaving his chair below deck and will be on the rail like the time when we won on Ocean Nomad. I understand he's bringing some good Scotch to "bless the deck". You know, it was the Scottish who first built these boats down in Carriacou for the Plantation owners of Grenada. Plenty of history which you can learn about if you end up watching Vanishing Sail which is a film about these amazing vessels. Click here to learn a bit about the project and see a preview. Of course we will have plenty of local knowledge, skill and rum drinking/sailing experience on board too with several of our long time team members playing key rolls. Guilli, Nikolai, and Big John will be there too. Once again this year Mount Gay Rum is providing us with shirts and hats or one of the day's racing. I am sure there will not be a shortage of rum either. I will blog more about the progress of Zemi before Wednesday and then after the first race on Friday. Stay Tuned.

Whales, Dolphins, and lets not forget Turtles too!

In my last blog I highlighted the whale and dolphin watching that is going on at the moment and mentioned that our boats have been seeing more than usual this year. Yesterday our two Xtreme boats doing the Circumnav (round the island) tour saw a pod of whales off Nelson's Dockyard. They approached them in between the tour stop at Green Island and their tour of Nelson's Dockyard. The whales didn't stick around for long and sounded showing their tails before the very deep dive. The water out there is several thousand feet deep. Anyway, the tours did their historical tour of Dockyard and then went to snorkel at Pillars of Hercules. After Xtreme's snorkeling session they returned to the area the whales were spotted and luckily they met them again on the surface. Captain JD shot the iphone image of one of them that is the featured image above. Once again we had delighted guests on board who got more than they expected on our round the island "Xtreme Circumnav Tour". Our Eco Tour on the other hand didn't see any whales for the week, but has been seeing dolphins fairly regularly. Both boats see turtles almost daily, and yesterday on the North side the weather was clearer and the Eco Tour saw quite a few hawksbill turtles between their tour stops. The nesting season for hawksbills is between May and November and generally people in Antigua regard nesting season as the summer months. However between the three species of marine sea turtles we have nesting on our shores (green, hawksbill, and leatherback), the entire year can have turtles coming up to lay eggs. The legislation protecting nesting turtles really only speaks of a few months in the summer, but Leatherback turtles nest from Feb to May. Leatherbacks are the most interesting turtles in my opinion and largest, and of the three nesting here, they are the rarest in our waters. The Antigua Sea Turtle Project, run by my wife and the EAG, has been getting reports of nesting leatherbacks for the past few weeks. Very early on Wednesday morning a massive momma leatherback came up to lay on Jabbawock Beach which is just down the road from me. If you follow my other older blog, then you will have read the huge problem that Jabbawock and many other beaches around Antigua face when it comes to street lights. The squished turtle shown in the image on the left is a member of the Hawksbill Turtle, an endangered species, taken on Jabbawock's main road the morning after the nest with about 150 little turtles hatched out. Using photos like this one and blogs like this one (click here) we have gotten the media involved (click here) and generally gotten the public to understand the situation. Still the lights are on and in about 60 days the endangered leatherback turtles will hatch out and will be drawn instinctively to the brightest thing. Usually the water lapping on the shore with the reflection of stars, but on Jabbawock the Chinese gift of street lights will lure them away from their natural environment and on to the main road. The Antigua Sea Turtle Project and the EAG has met with the public utility company several times and the lights remain on. It's a simple fix and solutions including different frequency bulbs, lower poles, using deflectors, and just plain switching them off. I hope I can blog here one day that our government has taken their head out of the sand to correct this problem. This image is of a leatherback turtle we found in the bottom of a hatched nest after doing an excavation. Usually one or two little ones get left behind in the bottom of a hatched nest and if you get there early enough the next day, you can help them get to the water. We have found that it's best to let them go at night though which is when the birds don't see them in the shallow bright waters. For more info on the amazing leartherback turtle check this link.

Best Whale and Dolphin Watching season ever

Our Humpback Whale season here is usually from Feb until May and this year we got off to a slow start mainly I think because of weather. Feb was pretty rough and with all the white caps out there it wasn't easy to spot whales spouting or breaching. People kept asking me when it was that they were going to see whales, and I kept on saying that March was the best month to see them. Anyway, march came and sure enough we started seeing whales. Nicola and I did a Observer Radio 91.1FM talk show interview with their Voice Of The People show to speak about whale watching and the best practices that should be used during whale watching. We also started a facebook group called The Antigua and Barbuda Whale and Dolphin Network. This facebook page had a goal of letting people know about whale and dolphin sightings as well as providing awareness about whales and dolphins. Check the page out this month if you can. Anyway, our tours have been seeing whales and dolphins each week for the entire month and while all of my crew and many of our guests have been lucky enough to see them recently, the office team has been getting quite jealous especially during whale sightings. Last week during a tandem Xtreme Circumnav tour both captans Ross and JD spotted a pod of whales just off The Grand Pineapple Resort up near Devil's Bridge. Forty of our guests were lucky enough to see these amazing creatures with their young ones swimming freely without fear in our waters. It was a great experience. Yesterday morning very early in the tour Ross called me and said that he and his tour were whale watching just outside Jabbawock beach. This was quite surprising to me as this is the area where I have spent most of my life and I have never seen one close into shore there. Anyway, I quickly called Nell and Mom in the office so that they could go have a look too from the shore. The mobile phone image which is featured at the title of the blog was taken by Natalie who was part of Team Xtreme with Ross and Nicola. Finally they got a glimpse of these amazing marine mammals and within less than 7 days this was the second time we have seen whales on our tours. We have been seeing dolphins more regularly though and overall these calmer sea conditions have been making all of the boaters happy. For more on whale watching in Antigua check this blog or visit the facebook page. You stand a good chance of seeing them up close if you come on one of our tours between now and the start of June.

Very Dry Weather for months here in Antigua means drought conditions

That's right, we have hardly had much rain at all since before the new year, and both Antigua and Barbuda are looking very dry indeed. Gone are the green landscapes and hills sides in the South of the island, and quite often bare soil is what you are seeing in people's yards. This makes me shake my head for two reasons. First, because I don't like to see the island suffering in times of drought. Animals and plants need rain water to thrive and all natural life on the mainland is using it's reserves slowly while hoping for a little rain. Today I watered my lawn which was very dusty indeed. Much of the grass is now gone and the plants were screaming for some sky juice.

As you can see from these photos, my yard is very dry.

Also you will see the ten day weather forecast from weather.com for antigua which for the past 11 years has been forecasting rain almost every day. That's the second reason that I shake my head. These simple animated weather forecasts always predict and show rain for Antigua even at times when we are experiencing terrible drought. So many potential tourists are turned off Antigua even before they reserve their flights and hotel rooms after seeing these incorrect forecasts, and the ones who see these stupid forecasts worry and fret all over the internet. Here is a typical post as seen on a regular basis on Tripadvisor:

bilxbet

no...

posts: 212

“ weather ”

Jan 18, 2010, 1:06 PM

hi we are going to antigua in 4 days. i keep looking at the 10 day forcast and it is rainy every day. does it only rain for 10mins or are we in for rainy weather. we are hoping for nice weather and the beach. be there friday the 22nd and can't wait, bill

Over the past decade I have spent so much of my time trying in many ways to tell people on the net that the forecasts constantly predicting rain for Antigua and Barbuda are not right. I am on most of the tourist forums telling people that it's not in fact raining. I blog about it regularly. Click here and here for examples of those blogs on two different sites which both have good info by the way, and the first one explains why weather.com and the other simple animated forecasts get forecasting for Antigua so wrong. Both blogs give you an alternative and more accurate forecast for Antigua weather. Another thing I do is use twitter to show normal sunny everyday photos. It's no Antigua live web cam, but it's an attempt to show what the weather is like from someone on the ground here in Antigua. My twitter log in is www.twitter.com/antigua so if you are interested you can "follow" me or just check it from time to time for images and a bit of banter. Anyway, Adventure Antigua, my snorkeling and sight seeing trips, charters and tours usually work better when it's nice and sunny, but some rainfall would be a blessing for the island overall. Hopefully when it comes, if it comes, the rain will fall at night!

A new website for Adventure Antigua

Thanks to Dwayne Tonge at JJDEZIGNS we have a new website finally. On my Google+ account I asked the general question "Where in Antigua can I get a good website built" and Dwayne Tonge immediately contacted me. We met, and I told him that I had been very happy with my old website but wanted something that was: 1) more easy to update, 2) manageable from anywhere without the need of a Dreamweaver type program, 3) phone and tablet ready, and most importantly 4) search engine friendly.
www.adventureantigua.com was purchased by me back in 1999 I think but was actually not in my name. The domain name was being hosted by one company. The website was being hosted by another company and then emails were being hosted by another company. It was all pretty messy like some of the West Indian beach restaurants that grow and grow by adding different rooms or levels onto their first little shack. We needed to sort things out.

From the moment we met, JJDEZIGNS was ready to offer ideas about how the new website could work to suit my needs. Many times Dwayne suggested ways of doing things that were way better than i had considered. It was refreshing working with someone from Antigua who really knew his stuff but more importantly, who bent over backwards to make me, the customer, happy. Dwayne, like me, is very very interested in SEO and in the way social media helps your product and website. This was important to me.

My website is one of the most important aspects of my business and I'm sure that I contacted Dwayne more than any client has done before. He never got frustrated with all my questions or suggestions. He was great, and did things the way I wanted them while using his knowledge and expertise to make sure it was done properly. 

Our site is up and is still going through some editing and changes as you, the users, give us feedback.
Please note however that some of our emails took some time getting to get to us, and could have been corrupted during the transition. If you didn't hear from us please use the booking form again to resend your info.
We are happy with it and hopefully the engines will be. In fact, we will be editing all the little hidden things that the search engines look for over the next few days.

If you are looking for someone to get you sorted with a new website or even kick start your facebook page, then check JJDEZIGNS out. This is their facebook page for more info.

www.adventureantigua.com