A key figure in the fishing industry is warning that a proposed move to make insurance compulsory for all boat owners could force small operators out of business.
President of the Black Fin Fleet Cooperative Society, Moonesh Dharampaul went further to describe the proposed legislation to mandate insurance cover for the owners of all fishing vessels as unjust and a bad deal.
He told Barbados TODAY: “The key issues that we face as a group…one of those is the mandatory insurance which we consider at this stage, to be an unfair decision; it is being put on us unjustly. We see it as an unfair practice, because, if you say insurance, it has to be all classes of boats. What is going to happen to a little man out there with a Moses now? If he has to pay insurance now, he is going to get vex and put down the boat.
He used a hypothetical premium of $6 000 – the annual cost of a ‘Moses’ boat, the dinghy-like small boat used between shore and fishing boat berth – to make the point about the magnitude of cover required by boat owners.
Dharampaul added: “The insurance on boats on the water is five times the amount on land. So, if you have a car for $150 000; whatever it cost you on land, imagine that on the water; they are going to charge you five times that amount, and it is unreasonable, especially for commercial fishermen.
“The challenge is that everybody tells you that fishermen, they don’t want to insure the boats. It is not that they don’t want to insure the boats, it is that they don’t have a good deal. It is business; nobody wants to make a bad deal. The insurance companies continue to take, take and take. Do you know if your boat breaks down out there, the insurance company can’t come for you? But if your car breaks down, that is different.”
He continued: “When you look at the deal, we are held hostage by these different infrastructures. Imagine you run a business, and you can’t run the business properly, because the infrastructure that is being provided for you nationally, does not allow you to facilitate business. And we are supposed to be making business easier to be done in Barbados.”
He claimed that if some misfortune befalls the vessel while at sea, officials only care about the boat and not about the humans onboard.
The fisherfolk leader also argued that if the fisherman makes it back to shore after his adverse encounter out on the ocean, “the people are going to tell you that is an act of God. So, the devil is in the details”.
Dharampaul also sought to press home his point by informing that if a fisherman’s gear is lost in the water or a large tanker were to pass by and cut his line, he would not receive any compensation. “And that is thousands of dollars. We, as fishermen, would like to have our own insurance, which would be captive insurance,” he insisted.
According to Dharampaul, his fishing cooperative is waiting to hear from the General Insurance Association of Barbados (GIAB).
“They still have to present us with the deal…the package, and we will then have to take that and let our lawyers look over it…because we are not just going to sign something willy nilly. If we don’t have proper haul out facilities, if we don’t have anything in the deal for us, then it isn’t going to make any sense. And I will not encourage any fisherman to go and do that. To me, it would be a bad business decision.”
When contacted, GIAB president Andrea Walton would only say: “The final policy terms and conditions are to be discussed with the Barbados Fisheries Division and the chair of the Black Fin group.”
(EJ)
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