‘Exxon operations should be forcing fish into our nets’

Jul 28, 2022 News

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– Minister Vickram Bharrat tells Parliament

Kaieteur News – As fishfolk across Guyana continue to struggle with low catch, anxiously awaiting the independent study conducted by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on the prevailing situation, the minister responsible for the oil and gas sector, Vickram Bharrat has told the National Assembly that ExxonMobil’s operations offshore should be forcing fish into their nets.

He made these remarks last Thursday evening, during the debate on a motion seeking full liability coverage for petroleum related disasters. Bharrat sought to put in perspective that while there are many articles and debates as to whether the oil and gas activities offshore were affecting the fish catches, a similar situation could be observed in the Caribbean and around other parts of the globe.

The Natural Resources Minister told the House that ExxonMobil is operating some 100 miles off Guyana’s coast, in a depth of over 5000 feet of water. To this end, he reasoned, “Mr. Speaker it’s hard to fathom that we have the kind of fish that we would catch in Guyana swimming and feeding in 5000 feet depth of water. I think it is almost impossible to do so.”

In this regard, Bharrat said it would not be justified to blame the oil production activities for the decline in fish catch. “I don’t think it’s quite justified, as a matter of fact and based on my own layman argument- and I often give this argument to people when I am speaking that- if the drilling and the exploration activities offshore 100 miles out, 5000 feet deep and you have exploration activities’ vibrations, what should happen based on our commonsense is that it should actually chase these fishes closer to shore, into the nets rather than away,” Bharrat pointed out.

The minister was keen to note that he has not seen this happening (fish swimming to the nets) hence, “the oil and gas activities should not be blamed for the low catch.” Instead, he told the House that there are a number of other reasons that may have contributed to the lower catches, citing the mixture of fresh water into the salt water as a key factor. Bharrat said this could have been as a result of the significant rainfall experienced.

Contrary to Minister Bharrat according to Oceana, a leading international organisation focused solely on oceans, dedicated to achieving measurable change by conducting specific, science-based campaigns with fixed deadlines and articulated goals, the seismic, sound-based technology used to locate oil and gas beneath the ocean floor can be highly disruptive to marine life.

With offices in North America, Central America, South America, Europe and Asia, Oceana has said that the loud blasts caused by these seismic airguns can be as loud and destructive as dynamite and are repeated every 10 seconds beneath the waves, 24 hours a day, for weeks at a time. “Sea life isn’t just disturbed by the deafening noise, they can be severely injured by the explosions and habitat damage that it causes,” the organization said, adding that these sonic, seismic surveys can cause temporary or permanent hearing loss in some marine species, which is essentially a death sentence for the social marine mammals that live nearby.

Impacts include temporary and permanent hearing loss, abandonment of habitat, disruption of mating and feeding, and even beach strandings and death. For whales and dolphins, which rely on their hearing to find food, communicate, and reproduce, being able to hear is a life or death matter. Airgun blasts kill fish eggs and larvae and scare away fish from important habitats. Following seismic surveys catch rates of cod and haddock declined by 40 to 80 percent for thousands of miles. In addition to being devastating for marine life, seismic airguns are the first step toward dangerous and dirty offshore drilling with associated habitat destruction, oil spills and contribution to climate change and ocean acidification. Oceana is working to halt the use of seismic airguns, and stop the expansion of dangerous offshore drilling.

Meanwhile, complaints of declining fish catches had triggered the FAO study which is yet to be shared with the public. So far, the Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha has noted that the reduced fish on the markets was not as a result of Exxon’s operations, but rather climate change. It was back in May that the Minister made this announcement and promised to release the document, but to date the study has not been shared. In the meantime, the FAO after being called upon by Environmentalist Simone Mangal-Joly to release the document, explained that the study was “rapid” and used information that is already available.

FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean, Mr. Julio Berdegue, in his response seen by Kaieteur News told Mangal-Joly that “The technical analysis in question was requested by Guyana to contribute to its understanding of these complex catch issues and support decision-making. It is a rapid assessment of reported issues related to fisheries catch between 2020 and 2021 and is based on available data.”

To qualify the conclusion, Berdegue added that “as a specialized agency of the United Nations, FAO adheres to strong scientific principles, and employs the highest professional standards in analyzing and disseminating available data. We are globally respected for practicing impartiality, transparency and accountability in our work, and we promote neutral fora for national dialogue and evidence-based decision-making.”

He therefore assured that when the report is ready and cleared in its final version, it will be made available through appropriate channels. In response, the environmentalist reasoned that, “You have clarified here that your charge from the Government of Guyana was to conduct an assessment related to fish catch between 2020-2021.This narrow focus and time period, and the fact that you refer to it as a “rapid assessment”, suggests to me that the study could not have been seeking to assess the impact of oil and gas activities on fish stocks and the fisheries sector in Guyana.”

 

 

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