Fishery conservation in PANAMA

Open letter to the Government of Panama

As sportfishermen, we suport the underway action taken by the Panamanian Administration to protect the fishery and marine resources.

In order to encourage and support the Government of Panama, we, foreigners sportfishing enthusiasts that travel to Panama to satisfy our hobby, would like to commit by your side. We would like to express our concerns regarding certain practices that do not respect the environment and are not in line with our vision of sport fishing.

To discourage these unsustainable practices, we state that we will not visit fishing lodges and operations that cater to spearfishermen. We also refuse to visit fishing lodges that sell fish for a profit, knowing that this is forbidden by law. We will not go to organizations that kills the following species:

-roosterfish -cubera snapper -goliath grouper -all billfish

We ask boat Captains and lodge owners that only one tuna per boat is kept. With regards to other species, we ask them to implement a strict policy of keeping one fish per angler. Apart from the above mentioned, we want to practice catch and release. The reasons for that:

-we feel Panama’s incredible fishery is in danger.