Latest update November 26th, 2024 1:00 AM
Berbice fishermen complain about smuggling of fish and shrimp on Corentyne River
…huge losses for them
Several fishermen in Berbice are complaining about the unfair competition from other fishermen who smuggle fish and shrimp into Guyana. The illegal activity, they said, is costing them daily losses from which they cannot recuperate.
They say that they have invested a lot of money in their shrimp and fish farms and have done a lot of excavation to make those leased farms near to their homes.
A group of affected fishermen.
They say boatloads of shrimp and fish—mainly tilapia, are quietly brought in through the Corentyne away from the eyes of the Customs officials. Also, the quality of the catch is being questioned, since consumers are complaining about rotten, smelly, spoiled fish and shrimp.
Kaieteur News understands that more than 200 fishermen are being affected and that the smuggled fish and shrimp are being sold off very cheaply to Guyanese along the Corentyne Coast.
One fisherman for over 25 years, Dennis Baker, of Susannah, Corentyne, said, “They producing a set of shrimps and bring it in this country—like hundreds of buckets per day and when these shrimps come in this country, our one and two buckets cannot sell.”
“The people them smuggling this shrimp—Guyanese going over there (Suriname) and smuggle this shrimp and bring it over here—like they bringing it backtrack from the Suriname waters.”
The local sellers operate at Rose Hall and Port Mourant Markets and sell for $8,000 per bucket of shrimp; the smugglers sell for $6,000.
Baker added that the practice was stopped a few years ago by the Ministry of Agriculture but it has recently started and the fish farmers are becoming frustrated once again. “We want the government to go and see the fish pond; how much money we spend on our place—everybody here dug their place with hymac and we cannot get back our money that we invest.
We trying to develop the country but nothing can’t do because others coming here.”
The shrimp season, he added, happens twice per year; the first season is currently well underway.
Another fisherman for 40 years, Sewdatt Persaud, stated that the shrimp is “contaminated since they are mixing it with the Guyanese one…every time they bring the Suriname shrimp, they mix it with the Guyana one, so when people buy it to take it overseas, and they take it abroad, it is not good because the Suriname shrimp loses water.”
“When we produce good things here and they take ours and mix it up, the whole thing contaminated and we lose our market.”
Persaud stated that he spoke with the Fisheries Officer, Mr. Rabdhanie Gajanabee and he spoke with his senior in Georgetown. “They said that they cannot do nothing much about it but they said they will contact the public health people to see what they can do.”
A protest action is pending since it seems that the farmers are not being lent an ear by the authorities.
Years ago, the Berbice Anti- Smuggling Squad (BASS) had stopped the practice.
When contacted, Gajanabbee forwarded this newspaper to the Chief Fisheries Officer, Mr. Denzil Roberts.
“It’s cheaper because they don’t have to do infrastructure work and pay labour costs—they just catch it in the swamp.”
“I asked for advice from boss, [the] Chief Fisheries Officer, [and] he asked me to go to public health and ask them if they can assist.”
He noted that he did speak to the Public Health Department officials “and they said that they really don’t look at those issues—they look at issues with residents and neighbours.”
“We are getting reports that the fish are coming from very swampy and dirty areas, so I told the public health about this”, he added.
“Perhaps Customs can assist to track down where the shrimp coming from and they can put a stopping to them, because they are the ones doing border patrol,” he mentioned.
Meanwhile, the affected fishermen plan to stage a demonstration if the relevant authorities do not listen to their pleas. Attempts to contact the Chief Fisheries Officer proved futile.
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