Deadline Looms: Fishermen Defiant on Monitoring Mandate

The government wants to know where fishing vessels are at sea, but some fishers want to know who will be watching them and what happens to that information. A new Vessel Monitoring System is now mandatory for stone crab and shark fishers, with officials saying it will strengthen enforcement and improve safety. But the Caye Caulker Fishers Association says government introduced the requirement without properly consulting those most affected. Now that the installation deadline has arrived, the association is demanding answers about privacy, access to location data and how that information will be used. Here is Association President Ian Forte.

 

Ian Forte, President, Caye Caulker Fishers Association

“Our association had a meeting with the crab fishers. We have, I think most of the members that fish for crab is a part of our association, and last week we had a meeting with them, and all of the fishers strongly opposed to it. They do not want to have that on their boat. They feel that they need more information. They should have some sort of consultation about what’s the purpose of it, what’s going on, what kind of data will be collected from it. So we wrote Fisheries a letter and told them that, you know, we would like for them to put it on hold. Come consult with us. Tell us what’s happening. These fishers have very valid questions, you know. Yes, this is a pilot program but when this pilot program finish, who’s gonna pay for the subscription? If the device is damaged, who’s gonna replace the device? How much is that gonna cost? These are things that fishers wants to know. A lot of fishers have one boat, but the boat is not only used for crab fishing. So if you wanna track or collect data about crab fishing it should be just about that. Now, from what I understand, this device would be installed on boats and would be on twenty-four-seven. It will be monitored by the Coast Guard. So if I have a boat and I have using my boat for recreational use or tourism or whatever, all of that will be tracked. What if the CEO of Transport would say, ‘Okay, we’re having a lot of drunk drivers on the road, a lot of accident, a lot of fatalities. Let’s put a GPS tracker on these vehicles, see who’s at the bar or what’s going on so we can stop them'”? That would be an uproar with all the motorists in this country.”

 

The Southern Fishermen Association which includes most of the targeted shark fishers have also categorically rejected the mandate. Late this evening the Chief Executive Officer in the Ministry of Blue Economy and Marine Conservation Beverly Wade informed News Five that implementation of the VMS mandate has been postponed to consult with fishers further.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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