THREE hundred thousand dollars are being offered as reward to anyone with information on the whereabouts of two Yamaha 48hp outboard engines which were stolen by pirates during an attack on fishermen two Sundays ago.

The owner of the boat, who was robbed of the engines, prefers to remain anonymous because of fear of being targeted by criminals, but he said that all information received would be treated with strict confidentiality.
Persons can call telephone number 628-1200, or contact the nearest police station to deliver the information they have.
Disclosing that this is his first experience of encountering pirates at sea, the man is calling on the general public to make an extra effort to ensure piracy in reduced in Guyana.
“We operate out of (the) Georgetown Fishermen’s Co-op Society. Sunday morning, my captain operate(d) out of LBI, and (at) about 3 o’clock a boat hit their boat (my boat) at the side. When they come out (to investigate), the guys pull out their gun and started to fire up in the air,” the man stated.
He said his men immediately realized it was a piracy attack because the slangs the attackers were using were different from those of ordinary fishermen.
“When they shot, one of the shells from the gun fell back into the boat, and we have it… We already made the report at the police station,” he said.
The two missing engines are painted in black.  “I’m asking (the) general public to help in the stamping out of piracy. These men are taking everything that we have worked hard for,” he said.
According to the fisherman, the pirates have been getting away with their criminal acts for too long, and those acts must come to an end.
Some of the items stolen from the fishermen include radio, GPS, compass, cell phones and fish glue.
Ten other boat owners have been similarly affected during the incident.
According to Agriculture Minister Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, Guyana is still working to implement strategies to curb the issue of piracy in Guyana.
He said Guyana continues to advance along the technological path of the 21st century as it moves to implement a new Global Positioning System (GPS) mechanism to monitor licensed vessels that are at sea and may encounter difficulties.
This is all through the collaboration involving the Agriculture Ministry, the Transport and Hydraulics Ministry and stakeholder companies to protect fisherfolk and curb the increasing number of piracy attacks on them.
This collaboration came about with the recent increase in piracy attacks on fisherfolk at sea.
The initiative was first talked about, then implemented mentally at the Fisherfolk Convention held earlier this year, where the minister promised that Guyana will be heightening its efforts to protect fisherfolk from the wrath of pirates.
“One of the strategies that are being looked at closely is a Global Positioning System (GPS) which will allow fisherfolk to be under watch by the local authorities even after they have left the borders,” Dr Ramsammy said.
“It will be a system whereby they can press a button and we will automatically receive a signal that they have either sighted a suspicious boat, or (have encountered) any kinds of problems. With this system, we will know the name of the ship that is leaving, and the names of the crew members and other such information that is needed to be on the alert and up-to-date.”
The new process will ensure that the authorities are up-to-date with what is going on in the industry, and with the fisherfolk; so that the necessary assistance can be rendered at any point whenever it is needed, Dr Ramsammy assured.
He recalled that, over the years, even while there has been an increase in robberies at sea, advanced measures were implemented to lessen the number of criminal activities; and it has been a continuous effort.
The minister reiterated that fisherfolk are important assets to Guyana. He added that the fishing industry will not be orphaned, but treated with as much importance as the other areas that fall under the Agriculture Ministry.