St Thomas fishermen say illegal divers are robbing them

Fishermen of Port Morant, St Thomas, say that night divers are robbing them of their livelihood.

Not only is it illegal to fish at night, but they accuse the divers of capitalising on their efforts when they bait the waters. They also accuse the night divers of damaging the coral by stepping on them when they are gathering sleeping fish. One fisherman, Donovan Nacte, says that he lost up to $140,000 recently as he caught no fish and could not offset his costs.

"If you go out there and don't catch any fish, you have to buy gas back and gas is very expensive. You have to buy bait back. You have to buy ice, so it is very expensive to go out there," he said, while calling for the divers to be more considerate.

"Everybody have to eat. We nah fight 'gainst no one, but the fact is you can't stop somebody else so you can do your thing," he said. Leroy Clarke says just a few nights ago he spent thousands of dollars to equip himself for a fishing trip, but his efforts were foiled by divers.

"The night diver dem man, they giving us a warm time. Last night, not even one count because they come as close as ever round we. We cut up the bait and we throw it over there so you always say fish dem around we. So, them come wid di compressor [to help them breathe underwater] and perform all night into daylight. So you don't have nothing to ketch, so you have to come back home." Clarke says that if this continues, he will constantly be in debt.

"That is a loss and me spend like $10,000 for my gas, $5,000 fi mi bait, plus food. So, today I don't have a dollar because di last mi spend and go out there last night and say mi a go do some catching. Mi affi go borrow again and that a more bill," he said. Nacte is calling for the authorities to police night divers just as closely as they do the fishermen.

"If that [night diving] is illegal and if you don't have a licence for your boat, you don't have a licence for yourself to fish, the police going to lock you up. So, I don't see why if they is illegal why they can't do something about that [night diving] because the night diving is very detrimental to fisherman doing hook and line and it just not working out," he said.

THE STAR attempted to get a comment from National Fisheries Authority CEO Gavin Bellamy without success.