Stephon Nicholas

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

Jet ski own­ers and op­er­a­tors say their liveli­hoods hang in the bal­ance as the court to­day con­sid­ers whether to con­tin­ue re­stric­tions im­posed fol­low­ing a fa­tal ac­ci­dent at Pi­geon Point.

The sec­tor has come un­der in­tense scruti­ny since the death of sev­en-year-old An­gel­i­ca Jo­gie, who was struck and killed at Pi­geon Point beach on April 8.

At a me­dia con­fer­ence the fol­low­ing day, Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine said an out­right ban on jet ski op­er­a­tions was be­ing con­sid­ered.

Dur­ing de­bate on the To­ba­go Ma­rine Park Bill on April 23, Au­gus­tine dis­closed that man­age­ment of the Pi­geon Point Her­itage Park had re­ceived at least three com­plaints about jet skis con­tin­u­ing to ac­cess the area il­le­gal­ly and op­er­at­ing close to bathers.

Hours af­ter the bill was passed, the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) se­cured an emer­gency in­junc­tion pro­hibit­ing all jet ski ac­tiv­i­ty at Pi­geon Point Her­itage Park and the Buc­coo Reef Ma­rine Park. The or­der al­so bans the so­lic­it­ing of cus­tomers, as well as the launch­ing and re­trieval of jet skis with­in those ar­eas.

The mat­ter is sched­uled to be heard vir­tu­al­ly to­day at 2 pm be­fore Jus­tice Sher­lanne Pierre.

Those named as de­fen­dants in the in­junc­tion in­clude Alexan­der “Xan­der” Phillips, Kelon George, An­ton “Swamp Dog” James, Alex Nedd, Nathan “Syo” Yates, Kelvin “Mer­ci­less” Jer­ry, Shaquille “4FT” Joe­field, Ash­worth, al­so known as “Whis­tle,” and “per­sons un­known.”

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, Na­dia Yeates, own­er of Aqua Par­adise Wa­ter­craft, said she is hope­ful the in­junc­tion will be lift­ed.

Yeates, 21, said op­er­a­tors sup­port ef­forts by au­thor­i­ties to im­prove reg­u­la­tion and en­sure pub­lic safe­ty but stressed that mean­ing­ful di­a­logue among stake­hold­ers is crit­i­cal.

She said busi­ness has slowed sig­nif­i­cant­ly since the child’s death, with po­ten­tial cus­tomers now hes­i­tant to use jet skis. How­ev­er, she added that the in­junc­tion has wors­ened the sit­u­a­tion, as her busi­ness mod­el re­lies heav­i­ly on ac­cess to Pi­geon Point.

Al­though Aqua Par­adise Wa­ter­craft, a fam­i­ly-run busi­ness along Pi­geon Point Road, does not launch from with­in the Her­itage Park, it de­pends on the beach for the ma­jor­i­ty of its cus­tomers.

“We are all very hope­ful that the in­junc­tion is lift­ed so op­er­a­tions can re­sume and we can use the Pi­geon Point Her­itage Park to re­gain our clien­tele and re­build our busi­ness­es. The re­cent changes have had a sig­nif­i­cant neg­a­tive im­pact on my busi­ness and those of my col­leagues,” she said.

Yeates added that the re­stric­tions have left op­er­a­tors un­cer­tain about their fu­ture.

“The slow­down in ac­tiv­i­ty has led to de­creased rev­enue. We can bare­ly use our equip­ment, and there is un­cer­tain­ty among em­ploy­ees who de­pend on this sec­tor,” she said.

Mean­while, Leroy George, chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer of Green To­ba­go Tours, said while his busi­ness—of­fer­ing reef tours, bi­o­lu­mi­nes­cence tours and all-ter­rain ve­hi­cle ex­pe­ri­ences—has not been di­rect­ly af­fect­ed, oth­ers in the ma­rine sec­tor are strug­gling.

“I have spo­ken to some of them and they are very con­cerned that this in­junc­tion could be ex­tend­ed. They have fam­i­lies, chil­dren and de­pen­dents to sup­port, and they are un­able to earn an hon­est liv­ing. As a re­sult, the hard­ship has al­ready be­gun,” George said.