AGRICULTURE Minister Dr. Leslie Ramsammy has disclosed that efforts are underway to expand the local aquaculture industry.

“For aquaculture, we are developing policies, we’re improving their training programme and we are expanding the options that people have,” he said in a recent interview with the State media.
The minister noted that the industry in Guyana started with tilapia and it has since developed quite an expertise on the growth of that fish.
However, in the last year, the ministry has been able to centrally develop the capacity to also harvest hassar as a specialty product and, this year, it will be expanding that production in Regions 1 (Barima/Waini), 2(Pomeroon/Supenaam),5 (Mahaica/Berbice) and 6 (East Berbice/Corentyne).
In addition, he mentioned that they are examining other options such as rearing pacu and a considerable amount of work has already been done in this area.
“We believe that we are ready now to introduce aquaculture pacu into the market, so 2013 will see that as a specialty fish. There are others we are working on but they are in various stages of development,” Ramsammy pointed out.
He said the Ministry has already started developing strategies and policies for inland and sports fishing and those will be further developed in 2013.
The Minister noted that the annual Rockstone Fish Festival has become part of the tourism calendar but emphasised that, for it to be successful, it has to be properly monitored.

FISH FESTIVALS
“If you have fish festivals and people go and can’t catch fish, it doesn’t make sense. So we have to conserve and regulate it so that people don’t go and catch out all the fish. For sports fishing to be successful, we have to regulate it. So we have to work with all of the communities along the rivers,” he posited.
As it relates to deep water fishing, Ramsammy said they are presently working with trawler owners to limit their fleet, so that there is no over fishing.
Additionally, the minister said a policy is now being implemented through which trawlers have some extruder devices to prevent the depletion of seawater fish, upon which artisan fishermen depend for their living and licensing of trawlers will depend on them having the devices.
“We don’t want them to deplete the seawater fish that the artisan fishermen depend on, because when they trap these fish in the nets, before they put them back in the ocean, these could all die and, therefore, we have to be careful that we use these extruders not to catch the fish,” he explained.
Ramsammy also spoke of installing monitoring devices in trawlers so that their whereabouts could be tracked.
At fault
He said, very often, trawlers destroy the nets of artisan fishermen but he could not say who are at fault since the two sides are blaming each other.
“These tracking devices will help us to determine where these people are going and where damages and so occur. That will help us to monitor what they are doing out there,” Ramsammy stated.
He acknowledged that fishing is a very successful export industry, with more than 30,000 tonnes of fish being exported each year.
However, he asserted that the sanitary and phytosanitary standards for exporting is becoming more rigid in Europe and North America and, for that reason, Government is looking to have marine certification of trawlers and their catch so that the fish can be accepted at any port anywhere in the world.
“We have a 2013 that is packed with implementation measures and I am sure and confident that we will be able to achieve these goals,” he remarked.