After almost a year of waiting for the San Fernando Fishing Facility to be completed, a group of irate fishermen and boat owners staged a protest and refused to occupy the building on Thursday.
The fishermen and boat owners who ply their trade from the King’s Wharf in San Fernando say they want to return to their livelihoods, but they are unable to do so from the facility, which they say is an unfinished structure.
President of the San Fernando Fishing Society Cooperative Limited, Bobby Sooklalsingh, said although the Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries is prepared to hand over the keys to the facility, they are not prepared to accept it until the facility is fully completed.
“The jetty is incomplete. No lights, so fishermen can’t operate in the dark. We can’t operate in the dark, right? And it’s a lot of things. Look, the fence not finished, and the security booth not finished. We have a building up there, it’s incomplete. So it’s a lot of things.”
Mr Sooklalsingh said the Association met with the Director of the Fisheries Division on January 13th, and pointed out that construction is still underway at the San Fernando Fishing Facility.
“Today was the proposed date that we were supposed to be coming with our boats and occupying locker rooms and what not, which is even a process. You just can’t come down here like crazy people and just put your boat by the jetty and people run in and take the locker room. That is a process. That has to go through the Fisheries Department. You have to sign a form and then they will allocate you a locker room.”
The Ministry, in a social media post on its Facebook page, stated the San Fernando Fishing Facility would be partially opened from 6am on January 16th, 2025.