Dear Editor,
In a report in your newspaper of Thursday, July 1, it was said, “sport fishing in some areas may soon be a thing of the past as the authorities look to prevent overfishing in the inland waterways, according to Minister of Agricul-ture Robert Persaud.”
While I do agree that there is need for regulations in everything we do, judgment should be made and regulations put in place only based on facts and circumstances.
Sport fishing is mainly done in the hinterland rivers, lakes and conservancies when the water level is relatively low and conducive to this. To have a great day of sport fishing, many things have to be right. The water level has to be right and not rising; the moon phase has to be right; the water temperature has to be right; and the angler has to be in the right place at the right time with the right tackle. Sport fishing, the way I know it, is done using fishing rods. Some of us anglers choose what we keep and even release the large fish so as to maintain the breeding stock. Most of the time the fishing is good during September to November and February to April and it is the sport and enjoyment of a few. I tried, but could not come up with the names of forty people who I know who do freshwater sport fishing on a regular basis. To imagine that these folks could overfish the vast rivers, lakes and conservancies of Guyana needs further explanation and evidence.
Commercial inland fishing though, is a different matter. When these folks are in an area their presence is easily visible by the hundreds of yards of gill nets they lay out all over the place. Many times the rotting bodies of desired and undesired fish have been seen in these nets. I have even seen old nets abandoned only to trap and kill fish that just rot, as evidenced by their skeletons. Net fishermen do not practise catch and release alive, and many times their nets are undersized and catch a lot of small fish.
Mention is made of the using Rockstone area to promote tourism sport fishing. I love the idea and this should be pursued with vigour. I just wonder if our Minister knows how great the fishing area there used to be. In the past, before land dredging and Omai gold mining, the angling there was incredible for decades. The heavy siltation and the cyanide spill are the most likely causes for the depletion in the bounty of fish from what it used to be. My guess is that if the siltation is halted and we allow Mother Nature to flush and replenish the river, the fish stock will rise again at Rockstone and it will take a lot more anglers than we have in Guyana to impact it in a noticeable way.
That this is possible is due to the fact that above the Konawaruk river mouth, the mighty Essequibo River is very much the way Mother Nature dictates, and it abounds in aquatic life. I just hope and pray that nothing serious happens to change this now that large-scale gold mining is being done in the Marudi Mountains, which is a headwater source of this mighty river. That should be of grave concern to all of us and moreso our relevant ministries. That mining company must be made to take every precaution to prevent an environmental accident, and a sizeable bond should be held just in case.
We need to also look at offshore sport fishing. This should be encouraged and developed as a tourist attraction and foreign exchange earner. I have been told by a top Trinidad and Tobago deep-sea sport fishing charter operator that off the Guyana shelf is some of the best sport fishing he has ever seen.
That a Food and Agriculture Organisation officer from Chile is here to help us develop an inland fishing policy and strategic plan is quite commendable. Mention is made of their meeting with a number of stakeholders. I hope that angling/sport fishing was represented in those discussions as we seemed to have been left off the invitation list for the observance of Fisherman’s Day events.
Yours faithfully,
Colin Ming
