As efforts continue to monitor the country’s marine resources, the Ministry of Agriculture’s Department of Fisheries has budgeted $54M for a vessel to monitor boats fishing in the country’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)
Chief Fisheries Officer, Denzil Roberts told the Department of Public Information (DPI) that the procuring of the vessel later this year will vastly enhance the agency’s ability to monitor local and international fishing vessels licensed to operate in local waters.
“We were awarded some money to buy the boat and we are hoping to acquire that this year. If we were to get our own boat we would be able to function more effective”, he said.
“We will be able to go out and check the boats and see if they are registered. Also, for us to have access to the American market for shrimp/sea bob we have to use the turtle excluder device to ensure turtles do not get caught in the nets. So, the Americans would come every two years sometimes once a year to inspect the vessel and also our records of how we inspect”, Roberts added.
