Local fishermen are complaining about catching hell in Guyana’s waters
Charity fishermen repair their nets.
Kaieteur News – Although the PPP / C Government announced last month that the fishing industry had managed to accumulate over $ 16B in excess revenue, extensive interviews conducted by Kaieteur News across the country seem to suggest that our fishermen have “been catch hell ”.
In fact, this media house has been receiving numerous reports that the fish stock has rapidly depleted in Guyana waters. However, over the past 12 months, depletion has intensified and anglers have seen their catch reduce, some say by more than 50%.
Many fishermen have blamed poor Government regulation for issuing too many fishing licenses, thus causing the sea to become overcrowded. Others believe that ExxonMobil may be involved in the ongoing exploration, drilling and production of crude. No independent government study has been published on the effects of these oil operations on the nation’s marine life.
Apart from a small amount of fish stock they are willing to catch, fishermen were further plunged into crisis by the Covid-19 pandemic. In fact, large exports were halted, the local market was overcrowded, and prices plummeted.
Repairing their nets: the group of fishermen who spoke to Kaieteur News at the Meadow Bank Fish Wharf
To witness the firsthand crisis and listen to their story, Kaieteur News headed down to the local fish wharves located in the three counties of Guyana, Demerara, Essequibo and Berbice.
On Wednesday, December 16, 2020, Kaieteur News drove down to Lanow Bank Wharf around 5 am. The reporter sat for a while to observe the business before having a conversation with a group of fishermen who were repairing their nets.
Around that hour, it was busy, boats were unloading, porters were fighting for a job to pick up customers’ fish. Fishmongers and fishermen argued as they tried to settle for a fair price. As they reached an agreement, fishermen were heard chatting among themselves. “They don’t even want to pay the price for fish, and we don’t even give anything. They must flex with awe the fear of this man ”.
Unlucky porters who didn’t get a job, sat in small groups chatting and begging fishmongers for ‘a small change to buy cigarettes and rum.’ The Kaieteur News reporter on this assignment eavesdropped on the conversation; the topic of the morning was “the busiest out here this year (2020)”.
They complained to each other “this is not mek, we are tearing a bad lick this year, boyz can’t even afford to smoke a cigarette”.
Within an hour, the buzz had stopped and the jetty was cleared, the business was over. A KN reporter then interviewed a group of fishermen who were repairing their nets. They asked that their names not appear in my report but agreed to share their honest views. They were quick to point out that the reports of a decline in fish stocks were not red herring.
One of them said, “We’ve been catching hell at sea … nothing man, nothing”.
Another in the ‘gaff’ joined, “Boy y’all need to talk about this thing, we barely clear expenses, our heads are barely above water”.
The man said his boss would usually pay for people to repair their nets but because the fish catch has dropped significantly, they have to repair their own nets to cut cost.
“Even the porters are affected, we can’t pay them to unload so we do that job too just to pay ourselves”, added the fisherman. He continued, “First, we used to catch fish per tonne but now catches like that are considered a miracle, fishing is getting worse…” He added, “Things are going bad this year , and it intensifies in the last six. months ”.
A third fisherman who smiled as he listened decided to hear his voice as well.
“Boy over the years, a fisherman’s job was big money because you get paid on the catch. Sometimes the catch is so nice that you go home with $ 200,000, sometime $ 500,000 in your pocket. Now if you get $ 50,000 in custody, you’re lucky ”.
He pointed to some of his colleagues who were sipping coffee and smoking cigarettes on another boat and continued, “They come in yesterday, you know how much they paid? Only $ 17,000 per man. A rough man ”.
An elderly campaigner also shared his experience, “I’ve never seen anything like this before, so the fish move out or disappear.”
He asked, “But is that really what happens in the sea? You see we’re ‘too bright in science, or so all we know is catching fish, the educated people y’all gah enlighten us. “He continued,” I want to believe that this is caused by oil exploration and drilling by your oil company, you know. Since they started, fish are starting to disappear and when they started producing the oil last year in it gets worse. ”
He then concluded by asking, “What can the Government do to help us? Can they do some investigation to give us an idea of what is happening to the fish? This is our livelihood, it’s the way we support our families ”.
Later that day, a fisherman who was out at sea called Kaieteur News. He had listened to the Glenn Lall Show on Kaieteur Radio and heard him mention that ongoing offshore oil activities can affect marine life and he wanted to testify that it could be true.
He said he has been roofing at sea for 17 days and cannot get to the jetty because his catch is not sufficient to cover expenses, much less make a profit.
He usually continued, “You can make a profitable catch in three days but this year, fishermen have been forced to spend weeks out at sea in order to make enough to go home for their families”.
To gain a comprehensive understanding of what appears to be a crisis, Kaieteur News reporters in Essequibo and Berbice also decided to talk to local fishermen in their respective counties.
Correspondent Romario Blair said fishermen in Region Two have also noticed that fish stocks have been declining over the past few years. He said these men had been able to cope with a crisis by getting fair prices for their catch but Covid-19 “hammered” them in 2020.
Blair explained that fishermen along the Pomeroon / Supenaam Region had told him that the pandemic had led to market prosperity, which eventually reduced the value of their catch. Also, in a report submitted to this news agency, Blair wrote that the majority of anglers locate from Charity ports and usually sail at sea, in the Waini area and offshore in the Region.
The anglers who spoke to Blair at the Charity’s fishing ports specialize in catching famous species such as Catfish, Cuffum, Trout and Gillbacker for the export markets. Apart from toiling to find these species, which appear to be slowly disappearing, the fishermen explained, COVID-19 has affected the export mark plunging them into a deeper crisis.
In Berbice, Kaieteur News correspondent Malissa Playter reported that she had also visited local wharves and received reports that members of the fishing industry appeared to be experiencing hell as well. The player spoke to the Chairman of Fishing Complex No. 66 Tamashwar Jainarine.
Jainarine is also a fishing boat owner and deals with the issues of over 800 anglers from that complex. He told Playter that fish catch had been low recently and has been that way for a few years now. She explained that, due to the low fish stock, some Berbice fishermen fished in Suriname waters.
However, Jainarine does not believe ExxonMobil’s offshore activities are causing the disappearance of the fish stock. “Berbice anglers don’t fish where Exxon drills,” he said.
He is of the opinion that the depletion of fish stocks is due to overcrowding in the waters.
“The system is poorly regulated, anyone could come and go fishing. No one is monitoring and the fish catch is getting smaller and smaller ”.
In the coming weeks, Kaieteur News will continue to investigate the above issue.