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Low catches

Apr 07, 2025 Editorial, News

Editorial…

Kaieteur News- Local fishermen have resumed their complaints about declining catches, pinning some the blame on current oil and gas activities offshore Guyana.

One major fishing company – Pritipaul Singh Investments Inc (PSI) has highlighted the significant decline in exports recorded by the company between the period 2019 and 2023 – from 20 containers monthly to merely two. In addition to PSI, the small fishermen and their families are also concerned about the significantly lower fishing catch that they experience, when they ply Guyana’s fishing fields. The results are meagre, as we reported recently: “Fishermen bawling at sea as they reel in empty seines”

By any calculation, it is a grim present, and a grimmer looking future for fishermen and all the many others who depend upon their catch. The dependent includes their families foremost, then the many retailers who make a living from what they bring to shore and can be offered in marketplaces, fish shops, corner shops, and street side vendors. Regarding the small shops and smaller vendors struggling to make it, fish burgers, fishcake, fish and chips and fish and bread are profitable daily staples. Take that away, or it becomes scarce and prohibitively expensive, and there is only meat and veggies left. That is, for those Guyanese who even deal with veggies to any great degree. The bustling subculture of cleaners, porters, and much smaller self-helpers gathered around the wharves to squeeze out ‘a little something’ from the daily fishing catch must also number among the dependents in our fishing sector.

The fishermen can barely make it with their catch, now well below normal levels, with almost 50 percent decline felt. They blame the rapidly expanding offshore operations of Exxon. One school of thought points to higher salinity in the water negative impacting marine life, with humans feeling the effects later, as Guyanese do today. Others blame changing meteorological conditions, with global warming all the rage. The temperature effects, which some unfamiliar minds may deem as negligible, have wreaked havoc in many places on a global scale, including possibly marine life, hence the cries of our fishermen.

It would appear that there is considerable basis for the misgivings and wraths of our local fishermen when they point to Exxon and its offshore operations as the main factors contributing to their plight. For, as we have recently reported consecutive studies conducted by ExxonMobil have warned of the imminent danger to marine species, including fish. Recently, this newspaper reported that another study done by Exxon confirmed that marine life, including fish, can be affected by poor water quality as a result of the planned petroleum activities. The EIA for the Hammerhead project- Exxon’s seventh development- states, “The project might affect marine fish due to the degradation of water quality as a result of the permitted vessel discharges described above, through acoustic impacts, through localized changes in distribution, and habitat usage due to altered bottom habitats and the presence of Project infrastructure, through attraction to artificial light, and through the potential to entrain (suck in) fish eggs and larvae at cooling water intakes.” The PPP Government and its leaders who like to shout that they are for the small man and the poor and working class have sought to downplay the decline in the industry and have responded with programmes such as fish cages and brackish water shrimp, which have done little to alleviate the plight of the fishermen.

Our powerful political presences and voices in Government and Opposition are without substance or sound. Incomes are depleted and could be lost and there is no one and nothing to comfort our people, who are told that the oil is our blessing; and it is the divine right of the President and Vice President and Leader of the Opposition to go along quietly with whatever sewage Exxon drops on the heads of weaker, vulnerable citizens of this nation.

Our nutrition intake is involved and impacted negatively, because with the declining fish catch, the focus then shifts to animal-based products, and all the known issues that follow. Our families are faced with higher fish prices, lesser availability, and concerns about the quality on the table, since the catch is so tiny. Fresh, frozen imports are not the same thing as straight from the sea to our homes. This oil, supposedly a blessing, is killing us, limb by limb.

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