St. Maarten Private Eye

There is a great difference between killing for our food and killing for the sole pleasure of entertainment.
The Native American Indians had a great deal of respect for the earth, they realised that nature was valuable and should never be exploited. They killed just enough for their food, they would never over fish, over hunt and kill animals for pleasure.
Killing animals for pleasure is just downright terrible. Fishing just enough fish for our food is good. Pleasure fishing where they fish just for pleasure is cruel. I remember when pleasure fishing was a sport on SXM. Many of those that participated then don't do so anymore.
One of those well known men told me he will never do so anymore as he now realise that killing Marlins just for fun is cruel.
SXM is suffering from over fishing, we are catching more than we should and we do not have a Marine Protected Area allowing fish to breed to their natural size. The end result is that many are complaining that the fish at the markets nowadays are very small and not as tasty.
The local fishermen are not the ones contributing to this over fishing, but large vessels/trawlers from Asian countries and Guadeloupe come into our waters, and just clean out the ocean floor and everyhting in it at once. We also have a huge problem with Haitian fishermen that do not understand what the word sustainabilty means. They go out and clean the lagoon of ALL conchs, never leaving the small ones behind. Their own country is stripped of all trees so we need to make them understand that there is a sustainable way to fishing.
I have seen areas around the lagoon where these guys have smashed the conch shells leaving them in piles. My point remains that we should see a distinction between killing for pleasure and killing for food. And when we kill for food we should not over fish, and kill more than we need for our daily plates.