RAPHAEL Dudley, 78, who has spent his entire adult life as a fisherman, has watched, helplessly, the gradual deterioration at the Rae Town fishing village for more than 20 years.

The Central Kingston fishing beach has over the years suffered from a lack of maintenance, became a debris-strewn, smelly waterfront dotted with rotting and dilapidated, roofless buildings.

Last Thursday, however, an elated Dudley, along with associates – 67-year-old Solomon Goulbourne and Norman DeLeon, also in his 60s – walked a clean Rae Town beachfront before relaxing in the shadow of freshly painted gear sheds.

“This is good because before this the beach was terrible,” Dudley remarked. “It looks good now,” he added, with an evident hope that the popular fishing beach would remain well kept.

Dudley was happy about the upgrading of the beach but lamented the demise of his boat, which he said was damaged last year during Tropical Storm Gustav, denying him the opportunity to benefit from his trade.

“I haven’t really gone to sea much since then,” he said.

Dudley’s other lingering wish is that more young people from the area would now become interested and view fishing as a serious long-term occupation.

The three elderly fishermen are among 110 people who are to benefit from an improved fishing village at Rae Town, a community immensely popular as a Sunday night entertainment spot.

Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries Christopher Tufton last Thursday morning reopened the facility after a $6-million refurbishing that saw the rehabilitation of 48 gear sheds and bathroom facilities as well as extensive landscaping.

Rae Town is one of 30 fishing villages islandwide that are slated for upgrading under a two-year, $148-million thrust to revitalise the industry and improve the lives of fishers.

Tufton, speaking at the Rae Town reopening, urged residents to protect the beach and emphasised camaraderie between fishers using the beaches.

“Collaboration on the fishing beaches is important,” Tufton told the fishermen. “The way to ensure your interests is to organise yourselves.”

He added that the agriculture ministry would soon embark on the registration of fishers, similar to the registration of farmers which started last year. “We are not going to use this information to tax anybody,” Tufton cautioned, explaining that the information would be used to assist in planning and in cases of disaster.

But while residents celebrated the improved Rae Town facility, Member of Parliament Ronnie Thwaites highlighted serious problems that dogged the fishing beach.

Plastic bottles and other debris from uptown constantly washed down the gully and through the community, ending up in the Kingston Harbour, Thwaites said.

He implored residents to protect the facility but said that resulting pollution of the beach and the Kingston Harbour, which he made clear was not their fault, seriously threatened the livelihood of fishermen.

The Kingston Harbour, Thwaites argued, was “systematically polluted and is now so contaminated that no fish is spawned and grown there”.