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| News Headline |
| New association to protect billfish formed |
| By Staff |
| Thu, Apr 17, 2008 |
 A group of Central American and U.S. businessmen announced recently that they had formed a new international Association to work for conservation of billfish in the Eastern Pacific, primarily along the coast of Central America and Panama. The organization, named the Central American Billfish Association (CABA), was created to fill the vacuum that exists in the region related to protection of recreational fisheries.
The focus of CABA's work will be lobbying governments in the area to enact restrictions on long lining and semi-industrial fleets that capture billfish indiscriminately. The lack of protection for these large species -- key to the prosperity of the recreational fishing industry in Central America and Panama -- threatens their continued existence and therefore the long term viability of marinas and deep sea fishing operations in such countries as Costa Rica, Guatemala and Panama.
In order to drive home the urgency and importance of taking immediate remedial measures, CABA has joined forces with the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science at the University of Miami. Rosenstiel's scientific work on the impact of predatory fishing practices on billfish populations will be brought to the attention of Presidents, Congressional leaders and fisheries directors in the region in hopes of spurring action.
CABA's leaders stress that the governments of the region must work together to save this fishery. They have drafted a regional agreement that they hope will be adopted by all of the Central American countries and Panama in the context of expanded regional cooperation. According to CABA's Executive Director, Ambassador Donald J. Planty, "unless the countries of the region grasp the importance of recreational fishing to their economies and act on a regional basis to sustain this resource, billfishing as we know it will become a thing of the past".
CABA's chief scientist, Dr. Nelson Ehrhardt, and Ambassador Planty will be holding a series of meetings throughout the region in the coming weeks to inform local operators and marina owners of CABA's goals and to seek support for political action. Dr. Ehrhardt is currently researching a ground-breaking study that will demonstrate, for the first time, the economic growth and social development that is generated by the recreational fishing industry in the region.
Under the terms of the US-Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), the Central American countries must cooperate with the United States on fisheries conservation measures in the region. CABA is working with US and regional officials to make billfish conservation a centerpiece of CAFTA implementation. |
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