RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Fullar­ton fish­er­men are urg­ing au­thor­i­ties to en­sure that barges trans­port­ing ma­te­r­i­al from Iso­let Bay to Kings Wharf, San Fer­nan­do, do not dam­age their fish­ing gear. The barges are car­ry­ing tonnes of sand from Iso­let Bay along the south­ern coast and de­posit­ing it in the Gulf of Paria off Kings Wharf.

The San Fer­nan­do re­de­vel­op­ment project plans to re­claim 3.8 hectares of land out­side the Kings Wharf fish mar­ket.

Fullar­ton res­i­dent Christi­na Ram­dass told Guardian Me­dia that fish­er­men have al­ready lost their nets due to the barges' ac­tiv­i­ties.

"Be­fore they were pass­ing around the main fish­ing zone but now they are pass­ing up and down from Colum­bus Bay to the Wharf and they are not car­ing that the fish­er­men's nets are there," Ram­dass said.

She con­tin­ued, "This hap­pen­ing for two weeks now and they com­ing from Gal­far. They near­ly bounce down one of the boats, They mash up a boat sein two times and last night they mash up an­oth­er sein. The fish­er­men had to run from the boat,."

The fish­er­men are sched­uled to meet with MP for Point Fortin, Kennedy Richards Jr., on Mon­day to dis­cuss the is­sue. Be­tween 150,000 and 200,000 cu­bic me­ters of sand are be­ing dredged from an area off Is­lote Bay along Trinidad’s south­west­ern coast.