Mangal-Joly calls on Mustapha to provide conclusion that oil industry not affecting f
Following his claim that the oil and gas industry is not responsible for the low fish catch, environmentalist Simone MangalJoly has written to Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha requesting the data that led to the conclusion.
On Friday, online publication Demerara Waves reported Mustapha as saying that a recent Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) study supported the contention that the oil and gas industry is not responsible for the low catch. He said rather it is climate change that is responsible for the decreased fish supply. He also made this statement to Stabroek News.
In a letter, dated May 21 and addressed to Mustapha, Mangal-Joly said “I urge you to release the study without delay and look forward to seeing the geographical and temporal data sets that provided evidential support for the captioned conclusion. Certainly, a combination of factors such as freshwater plumes during high rainfall events and overexploitation can affect fish availability. However, it would take a wellstudied
approach to conclude that offshore oil and gas activities play no role. You are no doubt aware that in the past five years or so Exxon Mobil and others have been
conducting seismic surveys offshore.”
She reminded Mustapha that Exxon has received four environmental permits from the government thus far for offshore oil and gas production without submitting any information whatsoever showing where valued marine environmental receptors are located relative to drill and production installations, effluent discharges, and ocean currents.
Mangal-Joly said there is no information in Exxon’s Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) as to the location of sensitive coral reefs, sponges, fish spawning areas, and seasons during which commercially and ecologically important species spawn. She added that the provision of that important information would guide the management of activities such as seismic gun use at sensitive times of the year. In addition, she bemoaned the lack of information on reproduction and life cycle patterns of important fish and other marine species at different heights of the water column and geographically.
Reiterating an argument she has consistently been making to both the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and ExxonMobil, Mangal-Joly said that