Major developments displacing Trelawny fishermen

Western Bureau:

While the spate of recent new developments, to include new hotels and an expanding Falmouth cruise shipping pier that has emerged alongside the Salt Marsh to Duncans coastline in Trelawny, has been an investor’s dream, the situation is also becoming a nightmare for fishermen.

Although he was quick to point out that the lucrative multimillion-dollar developments have provided much-needed employment opportunities for many persons, Fitz Christie, president of the Trelawny Fishermen’s Association, is also bemoaning the fact that the new developments have come at the expense of the livelihood of over 300 fishermen who depend on the sea to sustain themselves and their families.

“The nursery where the fish used to come and reproduce is destroyed,” said Christie. “The fishes no longer come into the area because of the acid seeping from the marl used to dump the sea. In the case of the hotels, the laundry water released helps to destroy the nursery. Fishermen who were accustomed to fish in 30 feet of water are now forced to go out into the deep to set their pots and shoot fish.”

IN DEEP WATER

With the fishermen having no choice but to be diving in water as deep as 130 feet, attached to a compressor that is providing them with air, Christie said they are exposing themselves to possible health issues.

“When fishermen go down as far as 130 feet, they are exposing themselves to a condition called bends,” said Christie, in speaking to the condition that could leave a fisherman paralysed.

According to Shana-Lee Thomas, the scientific officer at Discovery Bay Marine Laboratory,‘bends is a very serious condition, which affects the joints of fishermen, if they stay in very deep water for long periods.

“When these fishermen dive, using the compressor, they stay attached for long periods,” said Thomas. “The air they breathe in is a mixture of oxygen and nitrogen. They breathe out carbon dioxide, but the nitrogen is lodged in their joints. This exposes them to a series of joint problems and in some cases, fishermen have suffered strokes and even end up paralysed. It is from these effects that the name bends was coined.

A fisherman affected by bends could have a challenge getting medical help, as according to Thomas, treatment requires the use of a hyperbaric chamber and there is only one such equipment in Jamaica.

One fisherman, who has been affected by the existing situation, said fishing could become a thing of the past. With the area in question slated to get an additional 8,000 hotel rooms over the next four to five years, he believes fishing will eventually get displaced.

“The future looks good for tourism with the cruise ship pier and more hotel rooms, which should create employment opportunities for ambitious, young people. Unfortunately, we the older ones who have spent all our lives fishing are the ones being left behind,” Ralph Knowles, a fisherman told The Gleaner. “Unfortunately for us, times are changing and we just have to change with it.”