Wood­land fish­er­men who use the New Cut Chan­nel and Godineau Riv­er to get to the Gulf of Paria are call­ing on Her­itage Pe­tro­le­um Com­pa­ny Ltd to be­gin a dis­cus­sion on their com­pen­sa­tion.

The fish­er­men said oil from a leak­ing pipeline flowed in­to the New Cut Chan­nel around Mon­day, caus­ing dam­age to their boat en­gines and stain­ing the hulls.

It has al­ready cost them to re­pair the boat en­gines, but their in­abil­i­ty to use the rivers meant days with­out an in­come.

Pres­i­dent of the South Oropouche River­ine Flood Ac­tion Com­mit­tee Ed­ward Mood­ie said that al­though some­one con­tact­ed him from Her­itage Pe­tro­le­um to list the af­fect­ed mem­bers, he wants com­pa­ny of­fi­cials to vis­it and be­gin talks.

While com­pa­ny per­son­nel were in and around the haz­ardous zone, Mood­ie and fish­er­men were un­able to get in­for­ma­tion.

“We are try­ing to get on­to who­ev­er in Her­itage would be the one to li­aise with us with re­spect to com­pen­sa­tion for the fish­er­men and the oth­er peo­ple who have been af­fect­ed.

“There are no hous­es that have been af­fect­ed thus far, but there are peo­ple who are un­able to go out in­to the sea. 

“We have a few of the boat en­gines dam­aged. They went for re­pairs. If you look, you will see on a num­ber of the boats, the out­side of it is coat­ed with oil right now and it is a dif­fi­cult and cost­ly task these fish­er­folks will have to en­dure to get back on stream,” Mood­ie said.

Mean­while, Her­itage Pe­tro­le­um is ask­ing the pub­lic to stay away from the af­fect­ed parts of the riv­er.

In a me­dia re­lease yes­ter­day, the com­pa­ny said peo­ple en­ter­ing the area be­tween the bridge at the La For­tune Pluck Road in Wood­land and the riv­er mouth at the Mos­qui­to Creek can ham­per the cleanup and put them­selves in un­nec­es­sary dan­ger.

The En­vi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment Au­thor­i­ty (EMA) said it was mon­i­tor­ing Her­itage Pe­tro­le­um’s re­sponse.

The EMA al­so is­sued a me­dia re­lease and said its Emer­gency Re­sponse and In­ves­ti­gat­ing Unit (ERI) par­tic­i­pat­ed in site vis­its along with teams from the Min­istry of En­er­gy and En­er­gy In­dus­tries and the In­sti­tute of Ma­rine Af­fairs.

“Aris­ing out of the site vis­its, Her­itage Pe­tro­le­um has ini­ti­at­ed its spill con­tin­gency plan based on re­sources at risk, in­clud­ing the sen­si­tive man­grove ecosys­tem.

“Booms have been de­ployed at sev­er­al lo­ca­tions along the South Oropouche Riv­er, Godineau Riv­er and St John Riv­er to con­tain the spill and pre­vent po­ten­tial flow to the sea.”

When Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed the area, a con­tract­ed crew was cut­ting oil-cov­ered branch­es of man­groves.

An­oth­er work crew ex­ca­vat­ed part of the riv­er bank to clamp the leak­ing pipeline. There were no signs of oil en­ter­ing the Gulf of Paria and fur­ther sight­ing of an­i­mal car­cass­es.

On Wednes­day, the news team spot­ted a dead caiman float­ing as well as crabs and oys­ters cov­ered in oil.

Mood­ie said this was con­cern­ing for the en­vi­ron­ment and the peo­ple who catch and har­vest these kinds of seafood for a liv­ing.

On Wednes­day, Her­itage Pe­tro­le­um said it en­gaged a wildlife res­cue, con­ser­va­tion and re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion team to re­spond to the eco­log­i­cal im­pact.