There are over 1,200 artisanal fishing boats registered along Guyana’s coastline, but many are not licensed and for those looking to tap into the overseas market, this can pose problems.
The artisanal fishing fleet is the largest subsector of the fishing industry, but it also experiences the most problems ranging from lack of licensing to piracy. Head of the Fisheries Department at the Agriculture Ministry and Chief Fisheries Officer Denzil Roberts told Stabroek News in a recent interview that the artisanal fleet was the hardest to monitor because it was focused on the local market which does not have as many rules and regulations as the international market.
However, he said, “now the US and Canada are demanding you have traceability of your products” and this pressure is forcing the artisanal sector to self-police.
Moving forward, the fisheries department would need to clamp down on licensing, Roberts said. It is a work in progress and because of the demands from the overseas market to have traceability when middle-men purchase from various fisher folk at the artisanal level, they would need to ensure that the fish they are purchasing to sell can to be traced back to where it was originally purchased, he noted. Roberts stated that the accountability has to be from the fisher folk to the middle men who purchase to sell to processors and beyond.
“Licensing awareness is something that needs to be addressed and we have to try and get out there to all of them and make sure that they are licensed and that they are following procedures,” Roberts stated. He acknowledged that the artisanal fleet is not commercial and is widespread and diverse and even monitoring these boats could be problematic. Child labour in the fishing sector could be chalked up to occurrences at the artisanal level because policing of the industry is difficult, he said.
“They are all over and they are the smaller fleets and run by families and extended families…this subsection is widespread,” he stated. Roberts noted that fishing has been a part of Guyanese livelihood as far back as could be remembered and artisanal fishing is not something that could be stopped so it is best to find ways to self-regulate the industry while having basic policies and procedures that fisher folk can follow.
He stated that when current Minister of Natural Resources Robert Persaud was the agriculture minister, an anti-piracy fund was established but it never quite took off. “Piracy goes up and people complain, but then it falls back down and people forget about it,” Roberts stated. He said that in 2008 when the fund was introduced only seven persons put between $10,000 to $15,000 each, but that was not enough to have a base fund set up. The idea was that fisher folk would place a dollar value on their equipment and then pay a percentage into the fund so when pirate attacks occurred, the industry had its own insurance fund.
Roberts stated that there has to be a way to move ahead. Criticising the specific sector, he said piracy had to involve other fisher folk. “Someone can’t just come up and find you in the dead of night to rob you; they would have to know the sea also,” he said.
The Chief Fisheries Officer stated that the engine types that are used by a majority of the artisanal fleet and the market for the parts made the venture high risk. He stated that it was not just the engine but the fish that had market value.
“If you don’t have a market for these things piracy isn’t going to happen…but we need to be more vigilant and…knowing who is on the water is the best way to start this process,” Roberts told Stabroek News.
He added that fish glue, made from the bladder of snapper and trout, fetches high prices. Fish glue is sold to the Chinese market for use in herbal medicine. Stabroek News pointed out that artisanal fisher folk and pirates do not sell to the Chinese market, but must sell to processors who then export so if the sale of fish glue is known to be a proponent of piracy, more should be done to monitor who is selling fish glue to processors. Roberts said that this is the direction in which the department is headed and that it went back to traceability.
The fisheries department is inclined to have more interaction with the Guyana Defence Force Coastguard, since “we at the department can’t just go out there and do anything so we are reliant on the coastguard,” he said.
Roberts noted, however, that the department tends to be the first to get calls after a piracy incident and stressed that this has to come in conjunction with a call to the coastguard.
He stated that to grow the sector, the artisanal fleet had to get serious about compliance with international standards.
