BAHAMIAN FLATS FISHING GUIDE CERTIFICATION WORKSHOP AND REPORT
The Bahamas is the premier bonefishing destination in the world. As the popularity of bonefishing increases, so does the need for a collaborative effort to ensure the sustainability of bonefish populations, flats habitats, and the tourism-based economy they support.
With this in mind, the Bahamian Ministry of Tourism, through their sustainable development initiatives program and with the assistance of the Bahamian Flats Fishing Alliance (BFFA), is working to revise and update The Bahamian Guide Certification Program.
The first step in this process was to facilitate a workshop in Nassau that brought together bonefishing guides, lodge owners, industry, conservation organizations, and government officials to build consensus as to the importance, content, and operational logistics of the certification program. This workshop took place in The Bahamas in Fall 2009.
Brief Summary of Report
(to download the full report, click here)
Four general discussion topic groups were established to ensure coverage of major issues and components associated with the potential content of a Guide Certification Program. These topics and the summary recommendations made for each are as follows:
Angling Skills
- Identified the most important skills, abilities and knowledge for all guides to possess.
- Recognized the need for training and assessing new guides by senior guides/anglers, with the potential development of an apprenticeship program.
- Acknowledged the need for basic skills associated with angling and guiding to be taught in the Bahamian public school system, ensuring exposure to of the flats fishing environment to younger generations of Bahamians.
Conservation Expertise
- Identified several major aspects of both an educational curriculum for guides and an assessment component of the certification program. This included best handling practices, flats conservation ecology and conservation, basic flats species biology as well as size and bag limits and seasonal regulations.
- Provided a variety of perspectives on how to implement a certification program to include all levels of guide expertise and training needs of such.
Business Tools
- Identified a number of business-related criteria for certification that would promote high quality business operations, including development of skills, providing training and offering resources.
- Established a formal set of high service standards that include licensing, skills and code of ethics.
Bahamian Studies
- Recognized the role of Bahamian flats fishing guides as ambassadors of The Bahamas, and as such the need for a knowledge set that goes above and beyond angling skills.
To learn more about the workshop, click here.
To download The Bahamas Flats Fishing Guide Certification Report, click here.