There are no laws pertaining to the wearing of lifejackets or the safe handling of pirogues, legal maritime expert Nyree Alfonso said yesterday. Alfonso said so in an interview as Coast Guard officers continued their search for Nicholas Simmons, 14, and Dimitri John, 22, after a pirogue in which they were travelling to the Redbull Flugtag event at Chaguaramas overturned last Sunday. The pirogue was reportedly carrying 15 people.
Alfonso said there were no laws mandating the wearing of lifejackets at sea or stating how many people must be in a pleasure craft. She said many pirogues were used for fishing as well as pleasure. "You can't drive a car without a licence or doing a test. There is no such equivalent in the shipping world here," she added.
Alfonso said there was a Shipping Act governing bigger commercial vessels but none for small pleasure crafts. "You buy your boat and just register it 'dry so' with the Fisheries Division at the Agriculture Ministry and they give you a number," she said. She said she had been on a trip with the Coast Guard and saw an overcrowded pirogue with children on it off Gasparee Island. She said the Coast Guard stopped them but could not put the extra people out in the middle of the sea.