A few of my friends who have been campaigning for the environment for a very long time started an organization called the Antigua Conservation Society Inc. in the hope that we could play a more active role in helping to protect the fragile resources that we love so much. Antigua and Barbuda is famous because of it’s beautiful and diverse natural coastal environment and these habitats are under more pressure than they have been for thousands of years. Some species of coral have almost become extinct here and the some reef fish have not been seen by us or anyone else we know since the 90s.
If you follow my blogs here and on my old blogging site www.antiguaisland.blogspot.com you will see a common theme and criticizm in that I suggest that the total lack of visible fisheries management is to blame for much of the decline in health of our marine eco systems. The ACS will do many things and one of it’s first actions is to get people to sign a petition asking Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer to get the Fisheries Act’s regulations signed and put into practice. We set it up yesterday afternoon using www.change.org and by first light today we had over 170 signatures. Please sign the petition and please share it with your friends and associates. We need to send a clear message to the PM that people are not happy. In today’s Daily Observer newspaper, Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer speaks about the issue while being asked about support for Japanese Whaling.
Spencer said his administration is aware of the fragility of the fisheries resources and the need to have proper structures in place to safeguard them.
The Fisheries Division recently put the fishing community on alert over the impact that spear and gill-net fishing has on the Parrotfish population here.
Meantime, the PM has disclosed that Antigua & Barbuda will vote “yes” for commercial whaling during the 64th International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting in Panama City, Panama, which ends on July 6.
He says this but doesn’t pressure his Fisheries Minister to get the Fisheries Act signed into regulations which would have a massive effect on saving our reefs and their natural resources.
Please sign the petition and also “like” our Antigua Conservation Society facebook page to learn more and to help us get this act passed.