Gary Aboud slams ‘destructive’ trawlers

IN A scathing attack on locally owned shrimp trawlers, the secretary of Fishermen and Friends of the Sea (FFOS), Gary Aboud said: “In broad daylight, under the nose of the Coast Guard and in spite of several FFOS reports, locally-owned shrimp trawlers break the law and rape and scrape the ocean beds in the North coast in-shore areas that are protected as breeding grounds, and especially, are reserved for our community-based lifestyle fishermen.” According to Aboud, shrimp trawlers rip nets and damage pots owned by fishermen and turn rich ecosystems into desert wastelands.

Aboud accused the Fisheries Division, the Coast Guard and the Institute of Marine Affairs (IMA) of sleeping while the country is being destroyed by lawlessness. He wants a State of Emergency declared in the fisheries sector. “When Government fiddles and allows one law to be broken in one corner of the country, every law is weakened in every corner of the country,” he said. He also explained that the shrimp trawler trade was no different from the murder and kidnapping plague. “Instead of playing politics with pretty speeches and no action, politicians must uphold and enforce the law that they themselves have passed in Parliament,” contended Aboud.