Surinamese authorities seize Guyanese and Venezuelan fishing vessels
The issue of illegal fishing is once again being highlighted, with the reported seizure of Guyanese and Venezuelan fishing vessels by Surinamese authorities. A report out of Suriname earlier this week, accused its Eastern and Western neighbours, Guyana and Venezuela, of cleaning out its fishing grounds as a result of illegal fishing . The report in a Surinamese newspaper, pointed to the use of illegal methods to fish and announced that several vessels have been confiscated by Surinamese authorities, and crews were arrested and even deported.
At the opening on a consultation on fisheries on Wednesday, Agriculture Minister, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, who has responsibility for the fisheries sector said, that he has no official report on the seizures and that he is not sure that the vessels involved were legally registered.
The Minister said, that there is a fisheries agreement between Suriname and Guyana and he expects Suriname to respect that agreement.
The Surinamese Coastguard and border patrols have since stepped up their monitoring activities along the Surinamese Coast the report disclosed.
Comments
The question of seizures of Boats belonging to two friendly countries, Guyana and Venezueala calls into question the Maritime Boundaries which has been set at 200 nautical miles from each other coastal borders. There is the question of overlapping of Maritime boundaries and common fishing rights which can be re negotiated among all 3 countries and therefore the need of seizures will be dealt with at another forum. Suriname and Guyana are members of Caricom and a common policy can evolve as such for Caricom States.