ELIZ­A­BETH GON­ZA­LES

GML To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

The To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) has de­fend­ed the ac­tions of the joint pa­trol team, fol­low­ing pub­lic crit­i­cism over the use of armed Coast Guard of­fi­cers to treat with non-com­pli­ance of reef op­er­a­tors at the Buc­coo Ma­rine Park.

In a re­lease to­day, the THA apol­o­gized for any in­con­ve­nience caused but em­pha­sized that the team’s ac­tions were nec­es­sary to en­force park reg­u­la­tions and en­sure pas­sen­ger safe­ty.

The THA al­so is ad­vis­ing all tour op­er­a­tors to have the re­quired doc­u­ments to avoid penal­ties.

Over the week­end, a short video went vi­ral in so­cial me­dia which video showed a Coast Guard of­fi­cial com­fort­ing a child on­board the ves­sel who had be­come fright­ened and in­con­solable af­ter the child saw the armed of­fi­cer.

At the time, the joint pa­trol team were con­fronting a reef op­er­a­tor at Buc­coo Reef Ma­rine Park. The team it­self com­prised a crew from the THA’s De­part­ment of Ma­rine Re­sources and Fish­eries, along with of­fi­cials from the Trinidad and To­ba­go Coast Guard.

Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands of­fi­cials dis­cov­ered that the tour op­er­a­tor’s boat did not have prop­er reg­is­tra­tion, in­sur­ance, and li­cens­ing doc­u­ments, and was car­ry­ing too many pas­sen­gers.

In ad­di­tion, the cap­tain of the ves­sel had been warned mul­ti­ple times in the past for be­ing in breach of the Park’s reg­u­la­tions, there­by putting pas­sen­gers’ safe­ty at risk.

Re­ports are the Coast Guard of­fi­cers board­ed the boat and es­cort­ed it back to the jet­ty. 

Pri­or to the East­er long-week­end, the THA had is­sued pub­lic ad­vi­sories re­mind­ing the pub­lic that Buc­coo Reef Ma­rine Park is a re­strict­ed Ma­rine Pro­tect­ed Area (MPA).

The pub­lic al­so was alert­ed that the De­part­ment of Ma­rine Re­sources and Fish­eries, to­geth­er with the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice, Trinidad and To­ba­go Coast Guard and oth­er law en­force­ment part­ners, would be con­duct­ing joint pa­trols of the MPA dur­ing East­er.