Toco fishermen counting losses

He said one Grande Riviere fisherman in particular, Keon James, 31, a father of three, suffered losses of approximately $90,000. Rough waters, with waves as high as 25 feet in some instances, pounded the shorelines in Matelot and other fishing communities along the north-east coast on Tuesday destroying about 25 fishing boats and nets.

“Apart from the boats, there is a serious problem with the nets and those losses are heavy,” he said. Rondon, who is the councillor for Toco/Fishing Pond, said he had been asked by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture to compile a preliminary estimate of the losses. Meanwhile, the TT Meteorological Service said the swells which affected the shorelines of the north coast were generated by a distant disturbance in the Northern Atlantic Ocean and are forecast to affect coastlines for at least the next 24 to 36 hours.

The Met Service said Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) models forecast northerly swells with periods or wave intervals in excess of 13 seconds. “This means that the time between successive swell crests will be 13 seconds or more,” the Met Service said. “These long period swells may be low amplitude but as they approach shallow waters, the wave heights can increase sharply. “These swell conditions may lead to battering waves which will include localized disruption to sea bathing and near shore coastal activity especially the North coast of Trinidad and the sheltered coastlines of Tobago.”