Guyana was significantly overwhelmed by the challenge of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing
By Kiana Wilburg
Participants of yesterday’s discussion conducted via the US Embassy Facebook page.
Kaieteur News – The absence of key resources to properly monitor the nation’s ocean space as well as collect data from fishermen has left Guyana unable to address the growing challenge of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. This turbulent reality emerged yesterday, on the eve of Earth Day, during a virtual discussion led by the US Embassy in Guyana. Participants included Krishnand Jaichand, President of the Upper Corentyne Chamber of Commerce; Lieutenant, David Shamsudeen, Coastguard Executive Officer; Annette Arjoon-Martins, Environmentalist and Head of the Guyana Marine Conservation Society; Denzil Roberts, Chief Fisheries Officer (CFO) in the Fisheries Department of the Ministry of Agriculture; Veteran Journalist and Demerara Waves owner Dennis Chabrol; and Pamashwar Jainarine, Chairman of the Upper Corentyne Fisherman Co-operative Society.
To open the discussion, Embassy Public Affairs officer Violeta Talandis invited Arjoon-Martins to share her thoughts on the extent of illegal fishing in Guyana and what efforts have been made from non-governmental organizations to help create a space of what information about this problem it can be accessed.
Arjoon-Martins was keen to point out that while the government is the ultimate steward of the fishing resources, from his position as leader of an NGO, assistance can be provided in many ways. The Environmentalist said it was open to elaborate on this later in the program, and it did, but the head of the NGO noted that the most appropriate person to answer that question would be the Chief Fisheries Officer (CFO).
Taking over the discussion from this point on, Roberts said, “When you talk about this issue, it means any fishing that contravenes the Fisheries Acts and happens outside the reach of the law. We have our neighbors to the west and east and others who would venture into our waters to fish. However, we have no evidence of the amount of illegal fishing in our waters and the problem is the vast expanse of the maritime zone. ”
A government official continued, “… It’s very difficult and we have a Lieutenant Commander who can explain more but it’s very difficult to monitor what’s going on there and we would hear stories … but not is there evidence unless we have a properly resourced Coastguard because they are responsible for patrolling the oceans… ”
Following this, Talandis asked Roberts to talk to the technology available to help his department bridge the gap and whether that is also an issue for the nation’s Coast Guard. In this regard, the PSA stated that the department uses Ship Monitoring Systems which are used to monitor certain vessels in the industry on a 24/7 basis. He noted however that it is difficult for the said systems to be employed with artisanal fishing, which includes several small-scale, low-capital fishing households. In addition, Roberts noted that a ship had recently been acquired to carry out some research and to ensure that ships were using gears in accordance with the nation’s regulations. He said this would be in place next month.
During his contributions, Lieutenant David Shamsudeen was also keen to identify the issues facing the Coastguard in monitoring illegal fishing. He shared that Guyana has a coastline of 270 nautical miles and a Unique Economic Zone covering 200 nautical miles.
“Overall, we have 54,000 square miles of sea space which is a very large area to cover for patrol and that is one of our challenges and the ships we own could probably go takes us just over our territorial waters and the general areas where the illegal fishing takes place are beyond our territorial waters so one of our main challenges is to get assets that can get us to where we are those activities are happening, ”said the Executive Officer.
Expanding further, Shamsudeen said the Coastguard can only monitor ships within 12 nautical miles of Guyana’s ocean space. He said, “We can monitor those and check their documentation but beyond that, it’s hard to get out there … As we can, we can’t go beyond our 12 nautical miles.”
While the nation’s Coast Guard is hampered significantly by the lack of resources, Shamsudeen was keen to point out that the government is working diligently to remedy this situation.