that they came almost every Saturday and caught fish for the weekend. Some of the catch was to be cooked leisurely that afternoon at a party for friends. This activity seems both a recreational event and a supplemental subsistence activity. Two other recreational divers told me that they go spearfishing as the mood strikes them, or as one said, “I go when I feel like eating fish. What’s the big deal?” This particular individual, employed fulltime as a bartender at an island resort claimed that he did not care if he broke the law about spearing fish in closed areas. He said the laws “were stupid” and besides, he felt there was so little law enforcement that being caught with illegal fish did not concern him.
Few of the fishermen in any sector complained that there was a lack of fish, or that one sector was taking more than “their fair share.” One charter boat captain complained about the longline fishery south of the island, and another stated that the gillnetters catch too much and have far too much by-catch to be considered a sustainable fishery. Figure 42: Pictures of boys with speared fish at Cramer Park, St. Croix, August, 2004.
7.1.4. User Conflicts The recreational SCUBA diving community promotes the use of no-take reserves and marine parks to protect marine resources. They compete with local fishermen for the same resources but they only engage in non-extractive dive tourism. They use the seascape for recreational enjoyment and appreciation of the underwater biodiversity. Some of the recreational operators interviewed reported that they witnessed the illegal catch (and sale) of small sized lobsters and berried females by commercial fishermen. They report that the enforcement of regulations is very 128
