“Soar Higher”, and “Reel in Your Success” were the charges given by the Honorable I. Chester Cooper, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister ofTourism, Investments and Aviation to the nation’s first cohort of graduates in the BahamasAgricultural and Marine Science Institute’s (BAMSI) flats fishing and nature tour guide certification programs on Monday, January 29th, 2024. The graduation ceremony, which took place at the BAMSI Campus in North Andros, celebrated the accomplishments of forty trained and newly certified guides.

In his keynote address, the Deputy Prime Minister told the graduates that they were about to goon record as being among the first guides in The Bahamas to be awarded national certificationin their areas of expertise. He pledged that this would be accomplished via assistance from theTourism Development Corporation (TDC) while informing the audience that our countrybenefitted from an estimated one hundred sixty-nine million dollars (US $169,286,031.00) ineconomic output from flats fishing in 2018. He further stated that through nature guiding, TheBahamas stands to gain equally from the multi-billion-dollar global birding and burgeoningnature-based tourism markets world-wide.

Tourism Industry Travel Trends indicate that there is now a sustained upsurge in interest by ecoconscious Millennials and younger travellers in nature-based experiences that integratesustainable environmental and heritage activities for travellers, and in regenerative travel,which allows them to give back to the destinations they visit, thus boosting expenditure directlywithin local communities.

The tourism minister said that a major goal of his ministry is to expand ownership of the tourismindustry to local entrepreneurs who are equipped with the skills and knowledge to sustainablytake their nature-based tourism businesses to the next level. In attendance at the graduationceremony were several high-level government officials including the Honorable Leon Lundy,M.P., South and Central Andros and Minister of State in the Office of the Prime Minister; theHonorable Leonardo Lightbourne, M.P., North Andros and The Berry Islands and Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Works and Family Island Affairs; Senator, Tyrel Young, ExecutiveChairman, Bahamas Agriculture and Marine Science Institute; Senator, Randy Rolle; and Dr.Raveenia Roberts-Hanna, President, Bahamas Agriculture and Marine Science Institute.

The Fisheries Resources (Jurisdiction and Conservation Act) (Flatsfishing) Regulations,established in 2017, requires all flats fishing guides in The Bahamas to be certified andlicensed, and as the premier tertiary institution for marine science, the Bahamas Agricultureand Marine Science Institute (BAMSI) is considered well positioned to deliver the certification.

The nationally accredited certification courses offered by BAMSI in flats fishing and nature tourguiding were made possible due in part to cash and in-kind contributions provided by theBahamas Ministry of Tourism, Investments and Aviation (MOTIA) in collaboration with CompeteCaribbean Partnership Facility (CCPF) and the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO).

Additional technical, financial, and in-kind support was received from Audubon Society of theAmericas as well as other corporate businesses, government and non-governmentalorganizations represented on the National Steering Committee of the Andros CommunityBased Tourism Cluster Project.

The Bahamas Agriculture and Marine Science Institute’s Youth Employment Andros ClusterScholarship Program was launched byMemorandum of Agreement and in strategic partnershipwith MOTIA and CTO in the frame of the CCPF-funded Andros Community-Based TourismProject. As a result, subsidized training has focused almost exclusively on flats fishing trainingand certification of the youth in Andros; however, with the conclusion of the Project, the trainingand certification programme will now be open to the general public.

For detailed information on the programmes and listing of flats fishing and nature tour guidegraduates, please contact the Dr. Raveenia Roberts-Hanna, President of BAMSI.