Ministry probing recently issued trawling licences
The Ministry of Agriculture has initiated an investigation to determine how two new trawling licences were issued.
The move comes after the Guyana Association of Trawler Owners and Seafood Processors (GATOSP) protested that it was in contravention of sustainable fishing practices.
Disclosure of the probe was made by Director General at the Ministry of Agriculture, Madanlall Ramraj, who also acknowledged that the ministry has received a letter of objection from GATOSP. Ramraj said they are reviewing the entire process that led to the issuance of the licences as well as the objections made.
According to the Director General, the fisheries department is responsible for issuing licences and the probe will have to review the process.
“Only the fisheries department is authorised to issue licences but we will have to review exactly how this happened and what are the concerns of GATOSP and why their disagreement,” Ramraj said.
He noted that a meeting will shortly be held with the association to iron out the issues and discuss a way forward.
Stabroek News understands that the licences were issued to Guyanese trawler owners.
In the letter dated 19th November, GATOSP President, Reuben Charles, wrote to Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha for clarification, warning that new licences could jeopardise the sustainable certification that they had secured from the international Marine Stewardship Council (MSC).
The letter stated that in light of all the management initiatives in place and the low catches of seabob, new licences would be harmful to the sustainable management of fish resources.
It also warned that the MSC could consider this as a breach of the principles associated with the certification granted to GATOSP and revoke it.
GATOSP added that the addition of any vessel to the current licensing agreements is in contravention of the pact that it and the Fisheries Department of the ministry had agreed to.
The GATOSP letter said that members had been alerted of the two new licences after reports circulated in the fishing community. It added that some level of confirmation surfaced afterwards when the supposed holder of the new licences approached the owner of one of the seabob processing plants for an agreement whereby the plant would process the shrimp caught by his vessel.
According to the letter, the Association and the Fisheries Department had “worked out” an agreement to decrease the seabob trawling fleet of one hundred trawlers by 20 per cent over the period 2011 to 2013 following the collapse of the prawn fisheries in Guyana.
It added that the Ministry had also taken a decision that no licence would be issued which saw a few entities in the seafood industry such as Noble House Seafoods, Pritipaul Singh Investments, and Gopie Investment, giving up their licences.
The letter further added that after recognising the demands of seafood customers, GATOSP, the Fisheries Department and other stakeholders agreed in 2015 to seek Marine Stewardship Council certification of the trawl fisheries.