BahamaStreaker,
You raise some very good points, with which I have more than a little sympathy. I think, though, that you are pointing the finger away from Bahamians, when the blame lies with all of us, you included. There is absolutely no question that the unrestricted spearing of most any clear water within range of US recreational and semi-commercial divers is a major problem. I did more than my share of that and only stopped about 30 years back. Now we shoot dinner and occasionally 5 or 6 hogs and coneys on the last day to take home with us, but never shoot any large grouper. I'd much rather play with them. I'm pretty sure that catch is well within the bag limits and we started long before there were baglimits. Personally, I'd like to see them lower an coupled with severely restrictive size limits( which have worked pretty well in US waters). If I wasn't allowed to bring any home, that would be ok.
You are correct that I have a reasonably wide experiance in the Bahamas, including many areas well beyond the reach of any significant harvest by US recreational fishermen or other nationals. Trouble is, the lack of fish includes those areas and many are just about as bad as Bimini. West side of San Salvador and the north side of Rum Cay come to mind. That is Bahamians. Sometimes I suspect it is just folks trying to feed their familes an sell a few on the side. West side of San Salvadore looks like that. Lots of places look like its in large part Bahamian commerical fishermen. North side of Rum has just about zero recreational effort. I've seen commercial divers working south of Cat Cay( where I did a lot of diving and suspect that US divers have had a big impact) and noticed how scalped the area was after they left. I've spent a lot of time around Hole in the Wall and NEVER seen a US recreational boat on the reef and only a very few small Bahamian boats. Bahamian divers now use hookah, far more efficient than freediving at putting fish in the boat. I see lots of fish trap boats with efficient traps now that did not exist 30 years ago. Fish trapping, unless very tightly regulated is a disaster for fish life.
As far a lobster is concerned, before independence, there was a large US commercial diver presense. That is long gone. Uavoidable fact is, the vast majority of the catch for the last 30 years has been Bahamian commercial. Other nationals have certainly done their part in the southern Bahamas, but that doesn't change that fact. US recreational and semi commercial catch is significant in some areas, but not in an overall sense. You are probably correct that I shouldn't catch any outside of the season, but I've always taken my que from the locals, who don't seem to mind getting one or two for dinner. My apologies.
The truth is, we are all guilty and too many management restrictions are based on the principle of " the other guy is the problem, run him off, but don't you dare regulate me"
A sample below of some of my other posts
https://forums.deeperblue.com/thread...-lament.62451/