Town Hall meetings for recreational fishers

TUESDAY, OCT. 16: Please note that, due to the inclement weather conditions expected this evening from Hurricane Rafael, the Marine Resources Section of the Department of Environmental Protection has made the decision to postpone the Recreational Fishing town hall meeting scheduled for St. James Church Hall (Sandys) tonight at 7pm. 

The town hall meeting will be rescheduled for another date and members of the public will be notified accordingly.

In the meantime, recreational fishers are encouraged to attend tomorrow’s meeting at the Jack King Building in Botanical Gardens or the meeting scheduled in St. George’s on Thursday evening. 

Please also note an additional change: The venue for the St. George’s town hall meeting has been moved from St. Peter’s Church(Spencer Hall) to Ebenezer Church Hall.  The Department of Environmental Protection apologies for any inconvenience which the venue change may have caused and will have a staff member waiting at St. Peter’s Church Hall to shuttle people who may show up there to the new venue.

The town hall meetings will discuss the results of the 2011 Recreational Fishing Activity Survey.

The agenda will include the presentation of results from the survey followed by a Question & Answer period.

The survey was conducted in two parts: A shoreline survey and a mailing to owners of private vessels.

The primary goal of this survey was to investigate the levels of various forms of recreational fishing in Bermuda and to acquire estimates of the types and numbers of fishes being caught. The survey also aimed to find out whether the fishing public was familiar with, and generally supportive of, the new fishing regulations brought in at the end of 2010. Opinions on licensing and reporting options were also sought. The report discusses the information on reported catches, and compares the fishing activity of the two groups surveyed.