As three fishermen chased their first catch out in the Atlantic Ocean in a newly bought second-hand boat equipped with a $1 million engine the vessel was hijacked on Saturday by pirates who deposited them just off Mahaica.
Losing a boat to hijackers is something anyone in the trade must be prepared for every year, Mon Repos fishermen told Stabroek News yesterday afternoon. Over the last decade, one fisherman said, seven of his boats along with engines and the catch have been lost to sea-hijackers.
In the latest hijacking, Vijai Persaud and his two crew members, a police press release said yesterday, were attacked and robbed by the three men. Two of the men were armed with guns. The incident, police said, occurred at about 8pm on Saturday.
At the time of the attack the three fishermen were about 30 miles off the Mahaicony Foreshore when a boat with the three attackers came up alongside them. They were held at gunpoint and robbed of three cell phones, a quantity of jewellery, and $20,000. “The armed men then took the three victims close to the Mahaica Foreshore where they were put off and then escaped with both vessels”, the police release further reported.
When Stabroek News visited the Mon Repos area yesterday Persaud was unavailable to comment. However, a fellow fisherman explained that Persaud and his two crewmen were actually “thrown overboard” close to the Mahaica foreshore and had to swim to land. Persaud and his men, he explained, were not assaulted.
Persaud, the man said, bought the boat on Saturday from another man in the Mon Repos area.
“You see what does happen is when they hijack these boats they does strip it of all the valuables like the engine and the fish and whatever other fine, fine equipment we got in it and then they does lef’ the boat to drift,” the fisherman explained.
In some cases, the man explained, fishermen who have had their boats hijacked manage to find them again. However, this does not happen often and if the vessel is found it is usually damaged.
Over the years, the man said, police have not been able to do much in investigating these hijackings. These incidents, according to him, occur frequently and investigators are not very motivated “to chase after some men who got away with a boat and engine”.
“You got to remember that is not only fishermen in Mon Repos getting hijacked. Ask any fisherman throughout the coast and he will tell you that at least once he or somebody he know had a boat hijacked…and when you look at all these cases you really think the police got time with it? We does got to cut out loss,” the man said.
Fighting water-top crimes is a long standing challenge faced by police. Several senior police officials, including Commissioner Henry Greene and Crime Chief Seelall Persaud, have admitted in the past that more needs to be done to provide security on the waterways.
