Technical teams are assessing what work and funding would be needed to restore haul-out facilities at Tent Bay after concerns about shoreline loss and repeated engineering failures were raised by fishers last month, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Fisheries Santia Bradshaw has confirmed.
The announcement follows concerns raised last month by Black Fin Fleet Co-operative Society president Moonesh Dharampaul over lost shoreline and a lack of proper haul-out facilities.
Bradshaw said officials from the Fisheries Division are consulting engineers from the Scotland District project to determine the next steps.
“The Tent Bay situation is one where the chief fisheries officer and the team at Fisheries are evaluating the situation there,” Bradshaw explained. “When I was minister of public works, obviously we had the Scotland District project which was actually doing the upgrade to the road. So, they are in discussions currently with MTW and the project team that would have supervised the Scotland District project to be able to look at the concerns that have been raised by the fisherfolk.”
The minister said the site has a long history of engineering failures in accommodating local marine traffic.
“When we did look at it previously, the fisherfolk… raised some concerns in relation to the ability of the haul-out facility. What I later discovered was that over the years haul-out facilities have been built there, but I suspect that maybe the correct preliminary work had not been done and in some cases the haul-out area had actually failed.”
Bradshaw said road infrastructure initiatives did not originally account for marine haulage upgrades, making a fresh assessment necessary before public funds can be committed.
“Obviously the Scotland District project is not a project that is focused on the haul-out facility, and therefore our assessment now from Fisheries has to be done as to what is required at that particular site, and basically what expenditure we would have to put in place if we are to actually restore the area.”
But the minister cautioned that immediate action at Tent Bay must be balanced against national financial constraints and existing commitments to larger coastal projects.
“As you can tell, we are trying to look at all of the sites to be able to maximise the potential of all of the landing sites across the country,” Bradshaw said. “This facility alone is costing us significant sums to restore.”
She listed infrastructure works already included in the government’s immediate budget.
“We have got a plan in place presently for Conset Bay,” she said. “We have got the boat yard facility which has been awarded for build-out there, we have got the upgrade of the community centre, and we have evaluated the actual landing site and the buildings to be able to improve that facility.”
Bradshaw said the administration cannot address every maritime infrastructure shortfall at once and appealed to fishers for patience amid budgetary constraints.
“We are not going to be able to do all facilities at the same time, and I think what we have asked the stakeholders to do is to just understand that there are, one, sometimes capacity issues, but there are also financial capacity issues, so we cannot do all at the same time,” she asserted. “You will also note that the Oistins facility is also due for some upgrades as well, and we again have had to go through international funding to be able to do that.”
While reassuring affected fishers that Tent Bay remains under consideration, Bradshaw said national priorities had temporarily shifted to post-disaster recovery and protecting vessels from future severe weather events.
“Tent Bay is on the radar, but right now, obviously we have prioritised those sites which have been severely impacted by Hurricane Beryl, and the ones obviously on the eastern side that will also allow for us to be able to bring safe harbour to a number of the boats.
“In the event of another Hurricane Beryl, they can go along the eastern coast and be pulled up so that we do not have a repeat in terms of the destruction of the vessels as well.”
(SB)
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