CORPORATE Area fishermen, for whom the Government agreed an $80-million compensation package for losses suffered during this year’s dredging of the Kingston Harbour, are pressing the administration to pay up.

“The fishermen are very restive,” said Havelon Honeygan, vice-president for the Jamaica Fishermen Co-operative. “People from Majesty Gardens call me every day (inquiring about payment).”

The Government agreed to the compensation figure last month for about 1,000 fishermen from Rae Town, Greenwich Farm, Port Royal, Hunts Bay and other fishing communities in the Corporate Area and Portmore whose livelihoods were disrupted by the dredging.

Offshore fishermen from these areas, who were not materially affected by the dredging, were not part of the compensation talks, according to the Fishermen Co-op.

The claim arose from disruption of the fishing grounds and marine life around the Kingston Harbour by dredging carried out by the Port Authority of Jamaica during the first half of this year. The dredging, financed by a US$27-million loan from the Belgian Commerce Bank, was to facilitate the docking of mega ships at the Kingston Transshipment Port.

Some of the silt removed from the harbour bed was replanted in Hunts Bay, near to the Portmore Causeway, for land reclamation to expand a container storage area and for the construction of a new bridge as part of Highway 2000. But the absence of a silt screen in Hunts Bay, Port Authority officials admitted in January, resulted in the pollution of the area.

At the time, Noel Hylton, the president of the Port Authority of Jamaica, indicated the organisation’s willingness to compensate the fishermen who had suffered losses.

Former Central Kingston MP, Ronald Thwaites, who agitated on behalf of fishermen in his then constituency, said that the settlement package was down from an initial claim of $113 million.

“That claim was for six months’ loss of income by the fishermen,” Thwaites recently told the Observer. “Additional time has transpired since then and these people’s livelihood is still being affected.”

According to Thwaites, the dredging decimated the shrimp population that, in the past, fishermen caught and sold as fish bait. “They are losing thousands of dollars per week,” Thwaites said.

The fishermen have been looking to the agriculture minister, Roger Clarke, who has responsibility for fisheries, to push through their compensation.

“Following our last meeting, Minister Clarke was supposed to meet with the prime minister and Minister (of Environment) Dean Peart (to finalise the compensation agreement),” said Honeygan.