Tribune Staff Reporter

FORTY-FOUR Dominican fishermen have been fined for poaching in Bahamian waters.

The men were arraigned before Deputy Chief Magistrate Carolita Bethell in Court 8, Bank Lane Tuesday afternoon on a list of Bahamian fisheries violations.

Francisco Delva, 39, Juan Rodriguez, 35, Linbert Parra, 44, Serjio Alcantra, 33 William Severino,40, Rafael Cabrena, 45, Alturo Lopez, 48, Thomas Polanco, 37, Dionicio Fermin, 34, Yoel Cabrena, 24, Magaritio Martinez, 32, Gregoria Peralta,18, Rafael Siriacio, 29, Jose Seballo, 29, Carlos Almonte,19, Juan Johnson, 33, Hilario Alcala, 35, Hector Gil Estebe, 34, Carlos Enriquez, 34, Jorge Montero, Andre Garcia, 44 and Virgilio Alverez were the crew of a boat named "Mr Manny" which was intercepted near Ragged Island.

The men were arrested on Saturday, April 9, for illegal foreign fishing, possession of a prohibited apparatus namely a spear gun, possession of undersized crawfish and grouper.

The men were found in possession of 40 pounds of undersized crawfish, 41 pounds of undersized grouper, 740 pounds of parrot fish and 606 pounds of crawfish tails.

Parra, the captain of the boat was fined $50,000 or a year in jail.

Severino, Fermin and Alvarez were each fined $2,500 or a year in jail based on the fact that they were convicted of similar offences before.

The other crew members were fined $500 or six months in jail.

Twenty-two other Dominican fishermen were also arraigned before Deputy Chief Magistrate Carolita Bethell on similar charges. Luis Alberto Mercedes, 30, Jose Patista, 31, Juan Reye, 34, Yobani Lopez, 28, Edi Reye, 27, Jairo Gracequi, 30, Miguel Acara, 30, Sandi Jir, 32, Jose Pena, 39.

Fernando Cueba, 37, Wilton Mendez, 35, Rosario Varga, 27, Cesar Cabrera, 50, Radames Usebio, 35, Willy Vasquel, 27, Ullaa Nunez, 24, Francisco Garcia Roudon, 37, Antonio Gomez, 38, Miguel Santana, 47, Jose Bulgo, 25, and Cadino Ruiz, 44 were all arrested onboard a vessel named "Mr Jessi" which was intercepted near Cistern Point, Andros.

They were found in possession of 30 pounds of undersized crawfish, 30 pounds of undersized grouper, six spear guns, nine air compressors, 642 pounds of assorted scale fish, 528 pounds of crawfish tails and 730 pounds of whole crawfish. Mercedes was fined $50,000 or a year in jail.

His crew members were all fined $500 or a year in jail.

Read also: 25,000 pounds of illegally-taken fish found on Dominican vessel in Bahamian waters

Local newspaper comments:

Posted By: Bahamian On: 4/21/2011

Title:

we really need to start taking these dominican criminals more seriously ...before our waters start to look like their's.

Posted By: Fed up On: 4/21/2011

Title: No hard enough

And the court most probably gave them the boat back so they could fish again.