By Cedric Johnson, Freelance WriterWESTMORELAND:
AS THE island's fishing industry continues to reel under severe problems, Havelan Honeyghan, chairman of the Gillings Gully Fishermen's Co-operative in Whitehouse, Westmoreland, is calling on Prime Minister P.J. Patterson to appoint a Minister of Fisheries to take on the task of ironing out the difficulties in the industry.
"We in the industry believe that such a move would be desirable and, in fact, necessary to manage the problems of marketing, piracy, international relations and the general directions of the trade," said Mr. Honeyghan in an interview with The Gleaner.
CARIBBEAN COUNTERPARTS
In making the case for the setting up of such a ministry, Mr. Honeyghan argued that Barbados, which is about the size of the parish of Hanover, has a Ministry of Fisheries. Similarly, he said, Dominica, with a much smaller population than Portmore, has such an agency and Guyana, which has only about a third of Jamaica's population, also has a separate ministry.
Pointing out that there are some 100,000 persons who were directly and indirectly connected to fishing, Mr. Honeyghan said there are 45,000 artisan fishers. Vendors, fish scrapers and fish pot makers together amount to another 50,000 persons.
"We need a Minister to address our concerns; and it is a serious mistake on their part that none of the political parties had anything on capture or marine fishing in their manifestos," said the chairman of the Fishing Co-operative.
Making the point that the fishing industry has been contributing significantly to the country's growth domestic product, Mr. Honeyghan disclosed that the average local catch landed each year is 19 million tonnes. This, he said, in financial terms, represented a major contribution to the economy.
