A war of words has erupted, between the All Tobago Fisherfolk Association (ATFA) and the Secretary of Food Production, Forestry and Fisheries Hayden Spencer, over the security of fishermen at sea.
ATFA had called on the THA to provide GPS devices and a security programme for the fishermen.
In response, Secretary Spencer chided the fishermen for their lack of safety equipment, failure to join an ongoing national programme that monitors fishermen’s movement and dependence on the THA.
Speaking at last week’s post -Executive Council media briefing Spencer called out the fishermen.
“When I was Assistant Secretary in 2014, we started a programme with the University of the West Indies and the Coast Guard to help fishermen. In Trinidad, it was called mFisheries 1 and in Tobago, it was to be called mFisheries 2. However, the Tobago fishermen did not want it.”
He said the programme was designed to give security forces access to information on the fishermen’s whereabouts.
He said a trial started in Tobago but discontinued because the fishermen did not agree with having tracking devices installed on their vessels.
“If fishermen were to use the programme their vessels would have been monitored every day by the Coast Guard and TEMA (Tobago Emergency Management Agency). They did not want that.”
He said the THA was willing to partner with the fishermen and cover half of the cost of the initiative.
He the THA should not have to provide fishermen with Global Positioning System (GPS) devices.” A GPS device is part of a fisherman’s gear. That is their responsibility.”
ATFA’s vice president Curtis Douglas has taken offence to the Fisheries Secretary’s statements.
“Mr Spencer is my friend but he must get his facts right. The THA already gives certain fishermen GPS devices. Under the then Ministry of Tobago Development, ATFA was also given those devices.”
“The Fisheries department cannot help us as they do no data collection so we don’t know the state of the fishing industry here,” Douglas opined.
On the mFisheries 2 programme, Douglas said he could not recall the fishermen were asked to sign on to the initiative. “They have tried so many things over the years and have not followed through. I cannot specifically remember that one.”
“How could the Secretary say we do not want to subscribe to a security plan when we have been begging for years to have one? The Government, seeing the need for such a plan, has invited us to have discussions,” Douglas told Tobago Today.
Fishermen’s security at sea is receiving added attention after pirates attacked fishermen off the Gulf of Paria, Trinidad, tossing seven of them overboard and stealing their boats and engines. Only five of the fishermen’s bodies have been found so far.
In Tobago, at Belle Garden bay, two boats with engines went missing recently. Both vessels and one engine were later recovered.