Shas­tri Boodan

Clax­ton Bay fish­er­men are seek­ing an­swers from the au­thor­i­ties con­cern­ing the pres­ence of a num­ber of barges in the area. Kishore Boodram, 54, pres­i­dent of the Clax­ton Bay Fish­er­men As­so­ci­a­tion, said in re­cent days a num­ber of barges have start­ed as­sem­bling in the wa­ters close to where the fish­er­men set their nets. Boodram said there was al­so the pres­ence of fish­ing trawlers op­er­at­ing in the area. He said these trawlers were caus­ing prob­lems for tra­di­tion­al fish­er­men be­cause trawlers scrape the sea bed and de­stroy ma­rine life vi­tal to the food chain. A dis­grun­tled Boodram said he be­lieved that the barges have come to start work on the Na­tion­al En­er­gy Cor­po­ra­tion's deep wa­ter har­bour in the area.

Boodram said, how­ev­er, that the fish­ing com­mu­ni­ty had not been of­fi­cial­ly no­ti­fied as who brought the barges in­to the area. Boodram said the�barges and oth­er large ves­sels posed a dan­ger to fish­er­men, who are con­cerned that their nets and boats might be dam­aged. Boodram said fish­er­men al­so ran the risk of be­ing killed if a huge ves­sel rammed in­to their boats. He said three years ago, a fish­er­man dis­ap­peared when a ves­sel rammed a fish­ing pirogue and his body was nev­er re­cov­ered. He said a net could cost as much as $15,000, while a boat and en­gine could cost well over $60,000. Boodram called for the Coast Guard to in­ter­vene and look in­to the op­er­a­tion of these barges and trawlers in the area.