By Indrawattie Natram

— Senior gov’t officials hear problems of Region Two fishers

REGION Two fishermen are calling on the Ministry of Agriculture and the Maritime Administration to enable the issuing of captain licences and inspections of their boats to be done on the Essequibo Coast.

At a meeting held by the Region Two Regional Democratic Council (RDC) and the Department of Fisheries in Anna Regina on Tuesday, the fisherfolk related their plight in the industry.

According to Region Two Chairman, Devanand Ramdatt, there seems to be a “conflict brewing” among Region Two fisherfolk and called on them to form themselves into an

association for better representation.

The meeting was attended by Chief Fisheries Officer, Denzil Roberts, who encouraged the fishermen to establish an understanding among themselves.

During his interaction with the fishermen, he shed some light on the U.S. catfish ban. He noted that the Department of Fisheries is currently in the process of addressing the matter by ensuring the fish processing complex meets the necessary requirements.
He told the fishermen to be positive but informed them that while the U.S. takes a lot of catfish from Guyana, other markets are available.

CAPTAIN LICENCES AND INSPECTIONS
Boat owner Dindyal Latchmi during the meeting raised the issue where fishermen are facing hardships in acquiring their captain licences. Latchmi related that although there is a maritime office at Charity, it is “inactive”.

He explained that he came to this conclusion because “it’s a long, long process, you have to go to Georgetown to get done. While I can afford this, I don’t think others can, it’s expensive to travel and it takes close to three months to do this,” Dindyal said. This situation, he said, often results in fishermen being left out of work.

The boat owner also said inspection of boats is problematic and often the boat has to go to Demerara to be inspected which he opined is time-consuming and also an expensive process.

Other fisherfolk echoed similar sentiments and called for all necessary documentations in relation to licence renewal and inspections to be done in the region

FALSE RECEIPTS
Haresh Singh, another boat owner from Hampton Court, complained about scamps in the fishing industry. He alleged that persons are seeing fishermen are “dunces” and as such often many of them are fooled.

With that, he made reference to a few fishermen who were in the past issued faked receipts in their quest for renewed captain licence. Singh said persons would come pretending to represent the Fisheries Department and would usually take payment from the fishermen and issue false receipts.
These matters, he said were reported in the past to the Fisheries Department and to date nothing has been done.

In responding to the call for captain licences as well as renewing of captain licences and inspections to be done in Region Two, Roberts said he will investigate the matter but to his knowledge he knew the licences are renewed at the Charity branch office.

Ramdatt said the meeting was a step closer in addressing issues faced by fisherfolk and he will be making further recommendations from the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) to the Ministry of Agriculture in relation to the unresolved matters.

A few fishermen were selected at the meeting from various communities to serve on a committee to represent Region Two fisherfolk. Ramdatt said coming out of the meeting he has recognised that fishermen need to create a working relationship with one another. A follow-up meeting on progress made will be held next month.

Also in attendance at the meeting were Divisional Commander Khalid Pareshram, Maritime representative Anuradha Balbad and Charity Coast Guard Lieutenant Shane Ramphal.
A captain licence costs some $21,200 and could take a period of three months for renewal, this publication was told.