THE SEA HAS NO BACK DOOR

The deaths of three young Mayaro fishermen this week, aged 17, 19 and 23, are a grim reminder that fishing is a difficult and sometimes dangerous occupation whose dangers can be lessened with the taking of precautionary measures. And while we do not know what precautionary measures the luckless young men took, all persons wishing to make fishing a career should understand the need for such basic precautions as having life jackets, radio communication, shark repellents and flare guns in the event of trouble at sea. Yet despite this, not all fishing boats are equipped with life jackets, which should be worn once the boats are out to sea, as they should be with radios to provide crews with the ability to call for help in the event of an emergency. There was no evidence when the bodies of the three young fishermen were found that they had been wearing life jackets. 

Young people fishing off Mayaro and other parts of the East Coast of Trinidad should familiarise themselves with the times of high and low tides and the special dangers posed by the strong currents churned up by the Atlantic Ocean, which have no inhibiting land mass between West Africa and Trinidad. This is particularly crucial in the hurricane season. Young and not so young persons wishing to have fishing as an occupation, many of them attracted by the high wholesale prices being fetched by fish today — $22.90 a kilogramme for carite and $29.90 a kilogramme for redfish and kingfish — and the seeming glamour may romanticise that it is a not too difficult way to earn money honestly.

The truth is, as an earlier generation used to say, “The sea has no back door”, and except the necessary precautions are taken fishing can become a dangerous career with no back door to safety in an emergency.  For, in addition to the currents and the possibility of boats drifting out to sea in the event of engine breakdown, there is the ever present problem of bandits who will steal the fishermen’s catch and engines at gun point. Fishing boat captains, unless their vessels are equipped with radios, will be unable to make contact with the Coast Guard to report either the nightmare of their boats being adrift or of being the victims of piracy. The Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Marine Resources should seek to have laws introduced and passed in Parliament which would make it mandatory for all fishing vessels to have flares, radios and life jackets.

And for life jackets to be worn by their captains and crews as a precondition for the boats to put to sea, and at all times once they are out there. The Coast Guard should be empowered to order any fishing boat crews seen at sea without the life jackets to put them on, and to report any such infraction to the Police. Most of the fishermen have to be protected for their own benefit and for the welfare of their families. It is a rare occasion when fishermen don life jackets when going out to sea or when they are at sea. 

In turn, in the absence of radios and/or flares, fishermen can drift for days should their boat engines break down and without search parties being able to make contact with them. The wearing of a life jacket as well as having flare guns and radios on board should be understood components of basic precautionary measures, along with a knowledge of boat engines.  It should be pointed out that the life jacket-wearing fisherman stands a far better chance of being rescued if he is swept overboard and his boat swamped or it springs a leak and goes under, than if he is without hislife line to safety.