Casan­dra Thomp­son�Forbes

The To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) is tak­ing steps to make its­ma­rine parks safer for recre­ation­al users.

THA of­f­cials re­cent­ly met with reg­u­lar users of ma­rine parks such as the­Buc­coo Reef, the­La­goon area, No Man's Land, and theG­ib­son Jet­ty to work to­geth­er to ad­dress­nu­mer­ous com­plaints about reef tour op­er­a­tors and jet ski users, who can pose a threat to oth­ers in the ma­rine area.

Speak­ing at the post ex­ec­u­tive coun­cil news con­fer­ence on April 15,As­sis­tant Sec­re­tary for the Di­vi­sion of Ma­rine Af­fairs, Mar­ket­ing and the En­vi­ron­ment Hay­den Spencer said, "We are still hav­ing some chal­lenges in that area where jet skiers are en­ter­ing the ma­rine park pos­ing an im­mi­nent dan­ger to users of the park. So I am plead­ing with the jet ski op­er­a­tors again af­ter that meet­ing, and with the gen­er­al pub­lic be­cause the jet ski is fun, but there is an area clear­ly marked out for the jet ski op­er­a­tors to func­tion."

Spencer said some vis­i­tors may not be aware that there are stip­u­la­tions and they should en­quire from of­fi­cials the spec­i­fied ar­eas where they should use the jet skis.

"I am kind­ly ask­ing the pub­lic to co­op­er­ate with the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly and to un­der­stand that we want con­trol of that area, so things in that area can be done in an or­der­ly fash­ion" he said.