STRONG winds and rough seas have slowed business for fishermen in Portland Cottage, Clarendon, damaging fishing pots and making it increasingly difficult for them to venture into open waters to earn a living and provide for their children’s back-to-school needs.

The men shared that the strong winds started as far back as January of this year, but grew stronger over the last three months.

“The other day we lose a lot of pots and, as you can see, a build we build back our pots because all of them gone. From January come down it’s just bare breeze, and it just blow away the place and so no sea nah gwaan. The other day me leave about 50 pots — and that’s [worth] about $500,000 or more — and when I come back I don’t see anything, and I have to start all over again,” fisherman Dwayne Coleman told the Jamaica Observer on a visit to the fishing village last Wednesday.

He said the situation is rough because he has two children heading back to school for the new academic year.

“We nah say it easy but we have to try to make the best of it because youth are the future and we have to look out for them. No matter how the thing stay, Father God a bless we and keep we and make everything alright,” said Coleman.

Strong winds force fishermen to dock their boats on the beach in Portland Cottage, Clarendon, last Wednesday.

According to Roy Chambers, he has never before seen the level of harsh winds and rough seas with which they are now contending.

“Me a 57 years old and I never see breeze blow like this. From when I was about 15 or 16 years old me a fisherman, so it’s a long time, and I never see anything like this. Usually in March and April it’s calm but this year it was just breeze, breeze, breeze. A couple of days ago it started to ease down. If you guys can get us some help, we would give thanks. Even a roll of wire, we would give thanks for it.

“I have about 50 fish pots, and the breeze take them away because the seawater rolls them away and they get lost. We drop them and leave them, but because the weather is rough it rolls them away. If I have a big stone weighing 400 pounds in it, the seawater rolls it, put it on the land — it’s a powerful thing,” added Chambers.

He pointed to the boats on the beach, sharing that many fishermen have been forced to dock for days due to the weather conditions. He said in some instances fishermen had to abort trips to sea midway, once heavy winds picked up, not wanting to take the risk.

A fisherman who gave his name as Sepie said he has heard several stories of fishermen who did not successfully make the journey, and he does not intend to become a statistic.

Fisherman Clinton Fuller disembarks a boat at Portland Cottage moments after preparing it to go out to sea. (Photo: Garfield Robinson)

“The last time we brave the breeze, about 10 or so fishermen lose their life. So we nah take the chance to go Pedro Banks in this breeze because we a say we nah dead for hungry so it better we just stay at wi yard, and if the pot mash up then it mash up. We have to brace for everything now because when storm a come, you feel it and when it’s not storm, it’s the breeze. It’s rough on we but that is the job,” he told the Sunday Observer.

Meanwhile, fisherman Shamar Lambert said he is not only battling the breeze and hurricanes, but also the drought. He shared that, like many of his colleagues, he sought to diversify his income by taking up farming and is now feeling the pinch in both business ventures.

“Every way fishermen try to make a dollar it a get harder and harder, so it hectic for the back-to-school,” said the father of two.

“I raise animals. I have goats, cows, and I do little planting to back up the fishing, but the drought a mash up that, plus the breeze a mash up the fishing, so it’s like nothing nah maths out,” he said, frustrated.

To add to the mix, another fisherman said water pollution has decreased the fish population in the area.

“The other day we couldn’t come out here; it was about a week ago it kind of cut off. The trash came down onto the beach and everywhere in the harbour, and the sea was full of trash. It’s a big problem for fishermen because the trash runs away the fish and kills them, so the fish migrate,” he told the Sunday Observer.

The father of eight, four of whom are in school, said it has been rough, noting that when he is able to go to sea, several fish vendors are unable to pay him for his catch because they, too, are struggling to find the money to send their children back to school.

“Back-to-school bad right now, and me nah talk only for me, but for every fisherman. We have many days and months we nuh go sea, and then back-to-school come catch we. This is the longest strong breeze me ever see from me a do fishing. For months, strong breeze a blow we away. Fishermen a dead in them breeze there. It wasn’t a storm, but it was bad. All now we don’t get three days [of fishing] good…It’s a lot of time me load the boat and me have to just unload it again. I go to the sea and all have to turn back because of the breeze,” he said.

“We just want a little help to build back our boats and see if we can get business booming again,” he pleaded.