Local fishers are calling for more meaningful State investment in the sector and are complaining that they are having a hard time securing insurance coverage for vessels due to high costs and the limited number of insurance companies offering service to the industry.

Business liaison officer for the Jamaica Fishermen Cooperative Union, the umbrella organisation, which represents the fishing cooperatives and just under 3,000 fishers across the island, Anthony Drysdale told the Jamaica Observer that about 10 per cent of registered fisherfolk have insurance.

“There is a lot more needed, in terms of insurance for fishermen. One of the problems is that licensing boats is very expensive. For a fisherman to register his boat to insure his boat, it cost a lot of money. For the smallest boat – a 28-footer – we’re looking at insurance of just under $100,000, depending on the size of the engine.

“You don’t have a lot of them insuring boats, we are looking at approximately 10 per cent the most. What is needed is that the Government themselves would have to come on board. Compliance is something that you’d have to look at. The cost of equipment is sky high. It’s difficult to say a fisherman can pay insurance of maybe $180,000 per year,” he explained.

“I’m not making excuses, we want the best for fishers, but its rough out there,” Drysdale stressed.

He noted that only a few insurers are now offering coverage to fishers and that, furthermore, trying to investigate an incident or losses at sea is next to an impossible task technically.

“When a man comes and says him boat sink, who is going to go out there? They will never have that capability. I have been on sea for almost 40 years now…most insurers refuse to insure them [fishers], [but] they can insure the boat,” he outlined.

Drysdale was speaking against the background of a call made in the Upper House last Friday by Foreign Affairs Minister Senator Kamina Johnson Smith for boat owners and fisherfolk to insure their vessels against damage and loss as well as seizure by foreign authorities for the protection and safety of the crew.

“It is not responsible to send people’s children out on the high seas without consideration of the risk and the protection needed and to simply say when they call in distress, ‘The Government must.’ You have a responsibility, and I want to call on them to be more thoughtful in this regard,” Johnson Smith argued.

She warned that fishers need to carry out their activities more responsibly as when they find themselves in trouble outside of Jamaican waters it not a simple matter of government intervention once the laws of other jurisdictions have been breached.

Johnson Smith said her ministry will be collaborating with the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries to develop policy in order to move away from the ad-hoc manner in which these issues are now managed.

But Drysdale said that most fishers entering the sector shy away from registering their boats, and that it is difficult for the co-op to monitor these players.

“Apart from persons who venture out of port, which we consider illegal activity, we have little say in that regard because our fishers are required to stay in the boundaries of the island,” he said.

He said the cooperative has always urged fishers to have their vessels licensed, but noted that it needs government intervention to assist with these efforts.

“All fishers have to be certified, they need to have a fisherman’s ID to make sure that their boats are licensed, and to make certain that they are fit, in terms of safety devices to enter sea. This is something that we have been lobbying for, for umpteen years.

“It’s not something that we can do alone, we need the ambit of the government agencies to assist us…we get minimal assistance, regarding registration of boats, but there are still a lot of areas that need to be covered. Categorically, at this point, we don’t get any help,” Drysdale told the Observer.

He said donations of nets are not enough. “Wire alone don’t run fishing – fishing is a complex area. You have to have boat, engine, rig, it’s a costly venture, so it’s not simple. We have to look at it carefully.”

Drysdale said it would be difficult for the cooperative to analyse any illegal activity related to fishers as such individuals most likely would not be regularised.

He said this makes it even more important for fishers to have identification and all the other requirements so that in the event of an incident the authorities can verify the status of fishers with the cooperative.

Drysdale emphasised that over the years the organisation has impressed on fishers the importance of registering and licensing, inviting the Jamaica Defence Force Coast Guard, the marine police, and the National Fisheries Authority to annual general meetings across the island to explain the importance of licensing and the other imperatives for safe and legal fishing.