Dear Editor,
The Honourable Minister of Agriculture, Mr Robert Persaud, has recently spoken on the issue of sport fishing (`Sport fishing to be reeled In’, Stabroek News, July 1, 2010). I support the efforts of Minister Persaud to defend the interests of Rockstone and other riverain communities across the country that similarly depend on fishing for sustenance and economic development. However, I regret not having the full text of the Minister’s presentation since I cannot imagine him attributing the main cause of inland overfishing to sport fishermen.
What is a sport fisherman (or woman)? Well, let us start with what they are not. A sport fisherperson does not use nets but rather artificial lures, rods, hooks and lines. This fisherperson does not travel around with massive freezers in Canter trucks to store catch. A sport fisherperson does not sell his catch.
A genuine sport fisherperson is more likely to be someone seeking communion with the environment, with God in an earthy form. Henry Thoreau puts it this way: “Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.” Put differently, for a sport fisherman, catching a fish is a bonus. Every trip is a good trip!
So we recoil at the abuse that is being heaped on Mother Earth, whether by miners, loggers or fishermen. I have been a sport fisherman since my childhood days in the Mackenzie environs in the 1970s. The damage that was being inflicted by mining activities on the environment was apparent even then. The Minister is reported to have expressed concern about the fishing situation at Rockstone. I was in the Rockstone area some months ago and saw three dredges in operation (there may well have been more), merrily drilling through the river bed, processing the material and illegally discharging effluent directly into the river.
I shared these observations with a colleague from GGMC who said ruefully that discharging effluent into the river was one of the lesser sins of miners. Perhaps he was referring to the routine and unregulated use of mercury by miners, which can have a disastrous effect on riverain communities and consumers (including miners) of “bush fish” and “wild meat”.
It is unacceptable that such flagrant breaches of laws and basic ethics can occur even as GGMC representatives describe the current state of mining as “buoyant”, “bearing fruit” and “flourishing” (Guyana Times, July 4, 2010). Might we thus soon see greater investments in safer and less damaging methods for extracting our non-renewable resources?
Undoubtedly there are some neo-conquistadors fishermen who, like errant miners and loggers, wish only to conquer, rip-out, plunder, exploit and carry home treasure, come hell or high water. Their approach is much the same as the worst of the New World invaders and their subsequent colonial administrations, caring little for the damage done or the suffering caused, concerned only with “buoyancy”, “bearing fruit” and “flourishing.”
Unfortunately, and despite the considerable efforts of many, we still apparently lack effective monitoring and management of our natural resources and extractive industries. This is bad news for the LCDS. The Stabroek News report indicated that the FAO will be supporting the government “to improve the systems for data collection for monitoring inland fisheries.” This is good news. We need to establish the major causes of decreased levels of inland fish stocks and develop appropriate tactics accordingly.
Yours faithfully,
Lawrence Lachmansingh
