Santo Domingo.- The frequent incursions by Dominican fishing boats into Bahamian waters has sparked a political uproar in the capital Nassau, pitting Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham and opposition leader Perry Christie, over the latter’s suggestion of “blowing up or sinking (Dominican) ships.”

News source thenassauguardian.com reports that one day after urging The Bahamas to take “incredibly strong action” and blow up or sink Dominican fishing boats, “Leader of the Opposition Perry Christie said yesterday he was not advocating violence.”

It reports that Christie made the clarification after Ingraham expressed shock at the original statement made on the matter. “As I listened to them, men whose very profession, whose standard of living, whose life, whose children all emanate from the fishing industry, whose whole career has been on the sea and they spoke about a part of our Bahamas where they say people who are illegally fishing are causing and continuing to cause great damage, I concluded, Mr. Speaker, that at some stage if diplomatic channels do not work to get the Dominicans to assist us in protecting our waters from their nationals, that as a country we’re going to have to agree to take incredibly strong action, even to the point of blowing up or sinking ships.”

The Bahamas news source adds that the Prime Minister expressed his “greatest surprise in listening to Christie was the suggestion regarding the Dominican fishing boats.”

“I couldn't believe it,” the prime minister said. “I'm sure he misspoke.”

In addition to Bahamas, Dominican poachers often enter Jamaica and Turks & Caicos territorial waters, where they are often caught, jailed and their boats confiscated.