REPORTS FROM THE RIP: A meeting with the local fishermen and making friends with the Naked Panga guy.

A panga fisherman gaffing a small blue marlin that was in the process of being released

Anyone that has fished out of Casa De Campo, Dominican Republic knows that it is a prolific blue marlin location. What brings the Blues here??? Most people say it is the currents pushing the blues up from the South east caribbean. But what keeps them here? The Fads. Fads or Fish Atracting Devices are nothing more than a large styrofoam blocks or buoys anchored to the bottom in 3000-5000 feet of water. to the buoy, the local fishermen then attach palm fronds on a rope. Then Fads create a floating mini eco system that attracts tiny fish which attracts bigger fish which in turn attracts predators such as blue Marlin.
How do those Fads get out there. Local fishermen, mostly in small open boats place and maintain them offshore. They put a considerable amount of money into building each fad and derive their livelihoods from the fish that are attracted to these fads. They catch small tunas and mahi, and the occasional triple tail. But they really want blue marlin. Yes they catch, kill and sell blue marlin for food here in the local seafood market.
In years past the tensions have been rising as these local fishermen see more and more American sport fish boats plying the waters around their fads. They feel we are catching Their fish. Now, Yes we are fishing around Fads that they have placed out there, But we release all the Marlin to be caught again. At times these commercial fishermen will come close and ask for the blue marlin that we are fighting. other times some of them have boldly charged in and gaffed fish that anglers were still fighting. There in lies the problem. We are Fishing for sport. They are fishing to survive. We want to release our fish they want to kill them. The big american sport fish boats are much more efficient at catching blue marlin than the small local boats( Pangas). Many of the local Panga captains can't not grasp that we would release a fish that they can make money off of. In their frustration, they yell and scream and get into heated arguments off shore with us. Some have even taunted and challenged the bigger boats with their smaller boats in a form of offshore chicken. Most of the time this works. The reason being, the american captains here understand that we are fishing around the Panga fishermen's fads. We try to give them breathing room and respect them. One of the Panga fishermen has become kinda infamous with the american boats. We call him the Naked Panga guy. His tactic for warding of the american boats is to drive right up into our trolling spread and yell and scream. If that does not work, He takes off his clothes and slings his Vienna sausage around at us. Hey It works!

Local panga boat 30 miles off shore

While that is kind of funny, There have been incidents where it get down right nasty. one resent incident involved a panga coming in hot to try and gaff a blue marlin that an american boat was trying to release. In doing so the panga slammed into the side of the larger sport fish. No damage was done, but these incidents are dangerous for both the panga fishermen and the large boats alike. We have made complaints to the Dominican Navy and to the power that be in Casa De Campo. They listened to us and started a dialog with some of the Panga owners. Casa de campo set up a meeting with these gentlemen down in San Pedro ( a commercial town about 25 miles west of here.) The commercial guys invited us to come and have a meeting and buy us lunch.
Yesterday I attended that meeting. From Casa De Campo there was the Dock master Frank, Assistant Dock master Oscar, The GM Josie, Vilma and and the Navy port captain Homey. They invited any american crew that could attend, But with the bite going off and nearly every boat fishing, I was the only captain that could attend. I am glad I did.
We drove to San Pedro not really knowing what to expect. I was not sure if we would be making a hagira or escape to get out of there. When we arrived, We were greeted by smiling faces and handshakes. The Commandant for the Dominican Navy from Santo Domingo was there as well. The commercial fishermen had arranged a nice lunch and a great location for the meeting on a rooftop restaurant right on the water above some of the seafood markets. There was a large number of panga crews as well as panga owners and seafood market owners in attendance. I was impressed by the number of fishermen that stayed in from fishing to attend. It also showed me how important this issue is to them. And Yes the Naked Panga Guy was there. The meeting was run very professionally. Josie Gonzalvo the GM from Casa De Campo spoke to them of a plan to collect a fee from each american boat fishing in the marina. From that fund, there will be moneys donated to build more FADS and some of the money will go towards buying things like hand held GPS 's and hand held VHF radios for the guys actually going out fishing. They seemed somewhat receptive to the fact that we are wanting to help out and work together. I also found out from the meeting that the Naked Panga Guy (His name is Nelson), Was recently lost offshore for three days His motor had died and he was adrift with no way to communicate to be rescued.
These guys are just fishermen trying to survive. I had Josie interpret for me and I spoke to all of them. I tried to help them to understand that we ( crews on the American boats) respect the hell out of them and how hard they work in the conditions they have. I let them know that just like their boss tells them to go catch fish, Ours tells us to do the same. I think they got that. I let them know that we want to work together instead of against them. I really wish a few more gringo captains had attended but I think is was important and well received that one of us showed up.
Yes there are a few of the panga guys that still think we should give them the blue marlin we catch. But I think that as the money begins to be filtered into them ( Well documented and managed ) they will see that we mean to help them out.
Only time will tell If the steps taken yesterday will prove fruitful. I hope it does as I love fishing here and want the local fishermen to see us as partners instead of the opposition.