What is the importance of the fishing ban of several fish families? Expert explains

Santo Domingo.- The Vice Minister of Coastal and Marine Resources, José Ramón Reyes, highlighted the importance of the issuance of Decree 281-23 which extends the ban for two years on the capture, fishing, and commercialization of the families of herbivorous reef fish and the use, throughout the national territory, of diving compressors for the daytime or nighttime capture of aquatic species.

As an example of the commitment assumed by the Ministry of the Environment to the protection of coastal and marine resources, Reyes recalled that “parrotfish provide benefits that contribute to our ecosystems, as they are herbivorous, prune algae, clean our corals, which today are suffering great damage due to different factors, and provide sand for our beaches.”

He was confident that the Navy would avoid giving sail to vessels with compressors, one of the prohibitions included in the decree, to avoid their use in diving for day fishing or night capture of aquatic species.

“With this decree, fishing with compressors is prohibited, which has brought so much mourning to the fishing family. Many people have died or have been seriously injured as a result,” explained the vice-minister.

The decree instructs the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources to issue the necessary resolutions within forty-five (45) days to prevent, rectify, correct, or eliminate the situations that harm the aquatic resources (marine and freshwater) that are the object of these provisions. Said resolutions must have the consensus of the institutions related to the object of the decree.

About Decree 281-23

Decree 281-23, promulgated by President Luis Abinader on June 30, 2023, establishes a ban throughout the national territory, for two (2) years, for the capture, fishing, and commercialization of the following families of herbivorous reef fish. Among them are parrotfish, soapfish, butu, parrotfish, doctors, surgeons, angels, butterflyfish, sea cucumbers, and holothurians.

The decree establishes that only projects authorized by the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources will be allowed to collect holothurian species for research or scientific study purposes.

Likewise, it reiterates the permanent prohibition of fishing of Anguillidae (Anguilla rostrata) in all stages of its development (including elvers) and of any other species of fauna within the units of the National System of Protected Areas and its buffer zones. In addition, it prohibits the use of diving compressors throughout the national territory for daytime fishing or nighttime capture of aquatic species.

In addition, the decree instructs the Dominican Council of Fishing and Aquaculture (CODOPESCA), the Specialized Attorney’s Office for the Defense of the Environment and Natural Resources, and the Ministry of Defense, through the National Environmental Protection Service (SENPA), its military forces and the National Police to provide the support required by the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources for the execution and compliance with the decree.

The Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, with the support of the National Environmental Protection Service (SENPA), will be the entity responsible for the surveillance, monitoring, inspection, confiscation, and submission to the justice of all the establishments that commercialize, remanufactured, or collect the species put in prohibition by the first article of the present decree.

The violations to the dispositions contained in the present decree will be punished with the penalties foreseen in Law No. 64-00, of August 18, 2000, General Law of the Environment and Natural Resources; Law No. 202-04, of July 30, 2004, Sectorial Law of Protected Areas; and Law No. 307-04, of December 15, 2004, of the Environment and Natural Resources; and Law No. 307-04, of July 30, 2004, Sectorial Law of Protected Areas; and Law No. 307-04, of July 30, 2004, Sectorial Law of Protected Areas. The Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources shall implement environmental education, divulgation, and awareness programs to generate changes in the population’s attitudes, tending to favor the protection and preservation of herbivorous reef fish families.