The Di­vi­sion of Tourism, Cul­ture, An­tiq­ui­ties and Trans­porta­tion has as­sured that vis­i­tor safe­ty is a ma­jor pri­or­i­ty. The as­sur­ance came af­ter a shark at­tack on a British tourist led to the clo­sure of ten beach­es along the west­er­ly end of the is­land. Reef tours in the ar­eas were al­so sus­pend­ed.

In a re­lease yes­ter­day, the di­vi­sion stressed the shark at­tack was “rare as To­ba­go is known for its safe and beau­ti­ful beach­es.”

It went on to re­as­sure the pub­lic that vis­i­tor safe­ty is a pri­or­i­ty, with ex­perts en­gaged to man­age the sit­u­a­tion.

“The safe­ty of our vis­i­tors is a pri­or­i­ty and all ex­per­tise is be­ing en­gaged to en­sure safe­ty and man­age this sit­u­a­tion as best as pos­si­ble,” it added.

The To­ba­go Emer­gency Man­age­ment Au­thor­i­ty said it was ac­tive­ly con­duct­ing UAV (un­manned aer­i­al ve­hi­cle) scans along the coast­line to en­sure safe­ty.

Mean­while, de­spite the shark at­tack at Tur­tle Beach Bay, the Beach­front Jazz event host­ed at the Starfish Re­sort To­ba­go will still take place as sched­uled. 

The Beach­front Jazz is on but for safe­ty rea­sons, ac­cess to the beach will be de­nied. The event will be held with­in a fenced area in­land.

The or­gan­is­ers in a state­ment as­sured that they are prepar­ing for an in­cred­i­ble af­ter­noon of jazz.

It said, “Rest as­sured, we’re gear­ing up for an un­for­get­table af­ter­noon of jazz and can’t wait to see you there.”