Dear Editor,
There is a positive side and a negative side to granting licences to foreign fishing companies to engage in deep sea fishing off the coast of Guyana. In theory the arrangements always seem to be very beneficial to the host nation, as the written agreement when scrutinised by the most diligent legal minds may fail to reveal any clause which would be inimical to the interests of the country whose fishery zone is to be exploited.
The agreement will most likely unambiguously state that a processing plant will be set up, which will provide employment for locals, the Port Authority will benefit from much needed revenue from harbour dues, light dues, tonnage dues and pilotage fees; a case will be made that the nation will accrue much needed revenue from export of their products and that local oil companies will benefit from increased sales by bunkering their vessels, while rations will be bought locally to feed their crews. The host nation may also be told that their vessels will be dry-docked locally.
All of the above will most likely be true. However, as mentioned by the Chinese company which sought permission to fish off the coast of Guyana a few years ago, a utility ship will also be brought in to service their fleet.
In reality, however, the fishing vessels at sea only deposit part of their catch to one of their refrigerated cargo vessels to take into port. The company usually has a reefer mother ship at sea which will offload catch from the fishing vessels and go directly to a port where arrangements are already in place to sell the catch without the knowledge of local authorities. These fishing vessels remain at sea for an entire year or more at times without entering port, and will only do so if repairs can only be carried out in port, or dry-docking is absolutely necessary. The company utility vessel/oil tanker transfers crews at sea and replenishes their vessels at sea; the vessels never come into port to effect a change of crew. The company will periodically even bunker their utility vessel in a port where fuel is available at a cheaper price, or purchase it illegally and refuel their fishing vessels at sea all without the knowledge of local authorities.
A few years ago a Taiwanese company with at least four different company names and different addresses based in Trinidad with approximately twenty vessels was engaged in tuna fishing in the Atlantic. The company fished for several years, after which the known management players just disappeared leaving several of their vessels which were by then in deplorable condition, abandoned in Port of Spain harbour. All efforts to make contact with these officials were futile.
Trinidad, with its formidable Coast Guard fleet of air and surface craft, made no impact on the activities of these Taiwanese vessels.
The Guyanese fishermen/fishing companies were quite in order when they expressed their concerns about the granting of licences by the previous government to the Chinese company which applied.
Guyana does not have the means to monitor these vessels at sea. Even with the use of modern satellite tracking systems Guyana would still encounter great difficulty in knowing exactly what is going on. It is therefore incumbent on the relevant Guyanese authorities to be extremely careful when entertaining applications for permission to fish in Guyana’s Fishery Zone, as this business is usually much more complicated than it appears to be.
Yours faithfully,
(Name and address provided)
