WILLEMSTAD – Fishermen on Curaçao say it is unclear which fishing regulations currently apply in the island’s surrounding waters, creating confusion for those working at sea as well as for inspectors and enforcement agencies. According to local fisherman Edwin “Makambi” Flameling, the uncertainty stems from the constitutional reform of October 10, 2010, after which two different fisheries ordinances appear to have remained in force simultaneously.
When the Netherlands Antilles were dissolved and Curaçao became an autonomous country within the Kingdom, existing legislation was automatically transferred to the new country. This was laid down in the National Ordinance on the General Transitional Arrangement for Legislation and Administration. Only laws explicitly listed on so-called negative lists were repealed. The fisheries ordinances were not among them.
As a result, Flameling argues that both the former National Fisheries Ordinance of the Netherlands Antilles and the Island Fisheries Ordinance Curaçao 2004 formally remained in effect after 10-10-10 and now both qualify as national ordinances. No formal consolidation or modernization of the fisheries legislation has ever taken place.
What complicates the situation further is that the Island Fisheries Ordinance Curaçao 2004 can no longer be found in official legislative registers, such as the AB index. There is, however, no indication that the ordinance was ever formally repealed. From a legal perspective, this raises the possibility that the regulation is still valid, despite its apparent administrative disappearance.
The two ordinances serve different purposes. The former national ordinance mainly regulates large-scale commercial fishing and applies primarily outside territorial waters. Small-scale fishermen, operating with smaller vessels, largely fall outside its scope. Their activities are instead governed by the former island ordinance, which applies to inland waters and the territorial sea around Curaçao.
The lack of clarity has recently been exacerbated by the publication of a consolidated version of the Fisheries National Decree. This document includes provisions that originally came from the Island Fisheries Decree, causing rules for different categories of fishermen and different maritime zones to overlap. As a result, regulations based on distinct legal foundations are now mixed together in practice.
For fishermen, this creates uncertainty about which rules apply, what activities are permitted or prohibited, and under which ordinance inspections and enforcement actions are carried out. Legal experts warn that this situation undermines legal certainty and could weaken the enforceability of fisheries policy.
To date, the government has not published a clear and comprehensive overview of the applicable fisheries regulations. Specialists and stakeholders are calling for the drafting of a single, modern Fisheries National Ordinance that brings all existing rules together, providing clarity for fishermen, regulators, and enforcement agencies alike.