Fisherman Calls – By Kisean Joseph
Fisherman Calls Stronger Enforcement
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A licensed fisherman is calling for stronger enforcement of marine safety regulations, saying gaps in follow-through have contributed to repeated vessel losses at sea.
Eli Fuller, a self-described waterman, said the Antigua & Barbuda Department of Marine Services (ADOMS), the Fisheries Division and the Coast Guard share responsibility for checking vessels, but said enforcement has not always been consistent.
Fuller said new fisheries regulations were signed into law in the mid-2000s after fishermen, fisheries officials and international consultants pushed, for years, to replace outdated rules from the 1980s. He said enforcement faced early setbacks after the Coast Guard began applying the new rules.
“The minister was advising the fisheries officers not to go through with any kind of enforcement. So Coast Guard would arrest them, and then charges were never brought before the court by fisheries. And so, time and time again, they’d get back their equipment, they get back their boats, and they’re on the water,” Fuller said.
He said the pattern left Coast Guard officers questioning the value of continued enforcement.
“Why are we wasting the limited resources we have to go and enforce laws that fisheries is not doing anything about once we do it?” Fuller said, describing the frustration among Coast Guard personnel at the time.
Fuller said stronger follow-throughs across all three agencies would help address the problem going forward.
“It all comes down to government just not doing their jobs. If the government were doing their jobs, ADOMS, the Coast Guard, and Fisheries, then we wouldn’t have as many people getting into big trouble as they are,” he said.
He said neither ADOMS nor Fisheries currently operate a vessel capable of conducting checks at sea, leaving the Coast Guard to absorb marine safety enforcement on top of drug interdiction and immigration duties.
Fuller recommended that ADOMS and Fisheries acquire their own vessels to carry out random spot checks, and that the agencies coordinate with one another once a vessel has been confirmed compliant. He said existing penalties in the legislation should be applied consistently when serious violations are found, rather than allowing repeat offenders back on the water without consequence.
He said the consequences of weak enforcement fall disproportionately on those who go missing at sea, as well as on the Coast Guard and civilian volunteers called on to search for them.
