Trawler owners and seafood processors have voiced alarm at reports that the Ministry of Agriculture has issued two new trawling licences in contravention of a years-long agreement to ensure sustainable fishing of seabob and other species.
As a result, the Guyana Association of Trawler Owners and Seafood Processors (GATOSP) has written Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha for clarification and warning that new licences could jeopardise the sustainable certification that they had secured from the international Marine Stewardship Council (MSC).
In the letter dated 19th November, 2020, GATOSP President Reuben Charles said that in light of all the management initiatives in place and the low catches of seabob, new licences would be harmful to the sustainable management of fish resources.
They also warned that the MSC could consider this as a breach of the principles associated with the certification granted to GATOSP and revoke it.
“The association has expended millions of dollars to get MSC certification and it is extremely heart-breaking to be threatened with the possibility of having the certification withdrawn and our customers reacting negatively to that situation,” the letter by Charles, a former Chief Fisheries Officer, stated.
GATOSP said that the addition of any vessel to the current licensing agreements is in contravention of the pact that it and the Fisheries Department of the ministry had agreed to.
Contacted yesterday, Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Ministry of Agricul-ture Janell Cameron confirmed that the Ministry is in possession of the letter. She said a meeting will be set up with the GATOSP soon to resolve “all” issues raised in the letter.
Cameron said that the media will be updated following the meeting.
The GATOSP letter said that members had been alerted of the two new licences after reports circulated in the fishing community. It added that some level of confirmation surfaced afterwards when the supposed holder of the new licences approached the owner of one of the seabob processing plants for an agreement whereby the said plant would process the shrimp caught by his vessel.
According to the letter, the Association and the Fisheries Department had “worked out” an agreement to decrease the Seabob trawling fleet of one hundred trawlers by 20 percent over the period 2011 to 2013 following the collapse of the prawn fisheries in Guyana.
It added that the Ministry had also taken a decision that no licence would be issued which saw a few entities in the seafood industry such as the Noble House Seafoods, Pritipaul Singh Investments and Gopie Investment giving up their licences.
The letter further added that after recognizing the demands of seafood customers, GATOSP, the Fisheries Department and other stakeholders agreed in 2015 to seek Marine Stewardship Council certification of the trawl fisheries.
“Recommendations on further reduction of the seabed fleet were tabled and are being discussed in order for the fishery to remain sustainable,” the letter stated.
This, according to the letter was discussed at the regional level with Suriname, the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM) and subsequently the GATOSP, which is now required to recommend how it plans on addressing the issue.
GATOSP said that it had hired international consultants to study the seabob resource and to organize the data collecting system. Other related management issues included the definition of areas to be fished by the seabob trawlers, a system to calculate the recommended number of fishing days and the mandated use of bycatch reduction devices. GATOSP noted that an updated regulation – Fisheries Act 2002, Seabob Management Plan and General Fisheries Regulation 2018 speaks to many of these issues.
