Fishers want clearer markings to outline restricted areas off Kgn coastline

Artisanal fishers are calling for more boundary markers in the Kingston Harbour to delineate areas where they are free to operate, claiming that they are often reprimanded by the Marine Police and Coast Guard for unknowingly venturing into restricted areas.

“Normally, when you go into the sea, there are signs that are there like a boundary sign – ‘You can’t fish right there so, or you should not fish right there so because that is the channel where the big ship normally pass’,” Damion Benjamin, president of the Chiney Beach Fisherfolks Society, told The Gleaner.

“Many times you are there and you’re trying to fish, and the Coast Guard will come and say you’re in the channel, but there is nothing to show me that I am in the channel, and then you end up get a ticket for it,” he told The Gleaner while participating in a best practices and safety training session hosted by the Jamaica Energy Partners in Rockfort, Kingston, on Thursday.

Benjamin said they could be charged up to $30,000 for the offence and could also have their boats and equipment taken away.

“We as fishermen, we find that as injustice. It don’t fair because we don’t see anything. Same like when you park your car on the road and you see seh it’s a no-parking zone, you know the police officer can just point you to the sign and say, ‘It’s a no parking zone’, but in the sea, they can’t point you to anything, and that’s something that we want them to rectify,” he added.

However, Fisheries State Minister Frank Witter told The Gleaner that there are boundary markers in the harbour.

“The problem that we have is the issue of the fisherfolk not acknowledging the markers,” he said, adding that they are also properly illuminated so that they can be visible at night.

Witter said the markers are set within channels that ships use, which are designated no-fishing areas.

He added that the Coast Guard and the Marine Police are there to safeguard the fisherfolk themselves.

“‘Cause once they go into the channel, then these big boats can just run over them and create serious accidents, and that’s what [we are trying] to avoid and make sure that they do not do any fishing in the channel because of the danger it can cause to these same fisherfolk. So the monitoring and restriction is there for their safety,” he said.

But an even more pressing concern that Benjamin shared is that he believes the lack of proper signage in restricted areas is also contributing to overfishing and impacting the sustainability of his livelihood.

“Because there are sometimes reserve areas like nurseries. If there is not a buoy or a sign say that this is a nursery area or an area where they sometimes grow plants trying to rebuild the sea, and a fisherman will just see it as an area to fish in – a normal area – because there is nothing to tell him that it’s a nursery,” he said.

Stanford Hamilton, a fisherman of more than 40 years, said the issue of adequate boundary and warning signs is something they have been advocating for over many years.

“We don’t have no form of line to show where is the big ship channel different from the small boat channel, like how dem have it on the ocean side. We don’t have dat out there. And anywhere we fish, dem tell us that we are in the channel, and it’s a problem to us. That mean we don’t have nowhere in the harbour to fish,” he said.

The frustrated 64-year-old told The Gleaner that not only does this limit the number of fish he can access, but the lack of knowledge results in them being harassed.

“Fi yuh find [more than] $1 million fi buy a boat fi look yuh food fi yuh family, it nuh normal. After you spend so much money, yuh being harassed seh yuh can’t fish. It terrible, man. Sometime yuh feel like yuh want give up,” he said.

sashana.small@gleanerjm.com