JAMAICA’S fishers have reached a compensation agreement with oil explorers surveying the Pedro Banks, but the deal is pending final legal review.

“We have not signed off on the document yet,” said Haveland Honeyghan, chairman of the Jamaica Fishermen’s Cooperative Union (JFCU), an organisation of some 7,000 fishermen and women.

“Our lawyer is perusing the document. When he peruses the document, he will communicate to us his findings. On completion of that, we will have a meeting with the stakeholders on Wednesday.”

It took two days to hammer out the provisions of the agreement, said Honeyghan, in workshop sessions held in Kingston on February 23 and 24.

The draft sets out financial compensation for loss of fishing traps and loss of earnings for each day of lost fishing equipment, to the tune of $5,000 per trap lost, and the attendant loss of a day’s catch, valued between $500 and $700 each day, said Honeyghan in a Sunday Observer interview.

Parties to that meeting included the Fisheries Division and Fugro, the Dutch company contracted by oil exploration licensee Finder to undertake seismic surveys in four of 20 exploration blocks off the south coast. Finder is spending US$3 million to determine whether Jamaica has any exploitable oil and gas resources.

The Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica is negotiating another licence with an unnamed company.

Other local interests have been negotiating on a different level, to safeguard livelihoods and marine life, a key component of which has been the interest of fishers whose seafaring activities are at subsistence levels.

Key to those discussions over the last few weeks has been compensation for fishers, should their traps, other equipment and fishing grounds be impacted.

Honeyghan said Wednesday that the fishermen’s co-op was taking due care to work out the details of that compensation, saying it was to become a standard agreement.

“We have been taking care in the document that we sign and in the proposal that we are putting forward, because it is not a document for today or tomorrow but for the next 500 years,” said the fisherman, whose base is in Whitehouse, Westmoreland, another high density community for fishers.

“If and when oil is found in other parts of Jamaica, this document is sufficient to protect the interest of the fishers around the island.”

At the same time, he said a committee, comprising a representative from the JFCU, the Fisheries Division and Fugro, was to be set up to receive complaints of lost traps and catches, and, it is proposed, will review and approve requests for damage compensation.

“That committee is the oversight committee that will look at all claims. And that committee will review the claims,” said the JFCU chairman, adding that the compensation agreement also provides for the establishment of a tribunal to hear appeals against the committee’s decisions.

“There will be a tribunal that if the applicant is not satisfied with the findings, he will appeal to the tribunal,” he said.

Details of how the tribunal is to be constituted are to be worked out.

The fisherman’s co-op, meanwhile, has three representatives working with Fugro’s team as independent observers.

They are Sean Taylor, a Treasure Beach fisherman who serves as vice chairman for the JFCU and head of the Calabash Bay Fishermen’s Cooperative Union; Ruel Myrie, a fisherman from Rocky Point; and Clovis Williams, a fisher and member of the Old Harbour Bay Fishermen’s Cooperative Union.

“These persons were recruited through the Jamaica Fishermen’s Cooperative Union,” said Honeyghan, who is also chairman of the Gillings Gully Fishermen’s Cooperative Union at Whitehouse.

“Theirs is the duty to observe the clear passage of the research vessel, to talk to the other cooperative members and tell them ‘there are some traps to your right or traps to your left’, if there are any traps in the area where they are.”

Fugro has been conducting surveys off the south coast since mid-February from the Akademik Shatskiy, a Russian ship it contracted for the job.

One JCTU representative stays on the Shatskiy, another travels aboard the vessel ahead of the Shatskiy, and the third on the vessel travelling behind the survey ship.

Andre Kong, director of fisheries and head of the Fisheries Division, a state regulator of the sector, said Friday that efforts to safeguard fishing interests extended beyond the issue of compensation for damage to preventing damage, explaining the importance of the observers on the Shatskiy.

“We are in negotiations to ensure that there is a proper system to deal with any eventuality, to preserve the integrity of the system. We are trying to put things in place to cover the entire gamut of possibilities,” said Kong.

“We have a stringent observer system we are putting in place. There will be up to four observers, one from Fisheries and three from the fishing community.”

JFCU manager Ionie Henry said Thursday that co-op members would likely sign off on the compensation agreement sometime this week, saying the attorney, Carlton Melbourne, should have completed his review by then.

“After he checks back, our members will have to meet and sign off on it,” said Henry.

Kong also indicated that there was to be a meeting of all stakeholders on the issue about mid-week.

williamsp@jamaicaobserver.com

An unidentified fisherman from the Pedro Cays in discussion with Fugro representatives Reuben Aldrich Jr (left) and Scott McPherson (right) about the location of the seismic research in the hunt for oil now underway offshore the Pedro Banks. (Photo: Courtesy of PCJ) c3-fugro