Interagency committee to address report on trawler fire

An interagency committee is to be set up soon with representatives of the Guyana Association of Trawler Owners, Agriculture Ministry, Coastguard and Maritime Administration Department (MARAD) to deliberate on findings and recommendations of the report on the fire aboard trawler Captain Lloyd 97 in June this year.

The trawler was registered to Pritipaul Singh Investments Inc (PSI), and injured in the incident were Keith Adams, George Fitzpatrick, and Elvis Todd.  Orlon Munroe, who was also hospitalised, later succumbed to his injuries while Captain Delbert Williams went missing and is presumed dead. A preliminary report on the incident released a week ago slammed PSI for its lack of safety methods. 

However, at a meeting on Friday, the Trawlers Association complained to Agriculture Minister, Robert Persaud, that the report paints a bad picture of the entire industrial trawlers industry and portrays them in breach of various safety regulations.  Officials from MARAD, the Coastguard, and Fisheries Advisory Committee (FAC) were also present at the meeting and had their say about the report. All the parties subsequently agreed for the committee to iron out the issues related to the report and address the recommendations. 

President of the Trawlers Association, Leslie Ramalho, lamented that the report presents all the trawlers’ owners as being negligent of safety measures, when the operators have strived to ensure that all comply with existing regulations.  He explained that while the investigations centred on PSI operations, the findings points to “measures” that are lacking in all other operators, since the “gaps” indentified are new to the operators. The trawler executive maintained that while the operators are not opposed to comply with the newly mentioned regulations, they believe that it is unfair to hold them in breach of these measures. 

Further, the operators feel that some of the recommendations are not feasible. For instance, the report calls for a trained mechanic aboard each vessel. The executives argued that while it is difficult to secure a mechanic for each vessel, the operators have ensured that the captains have basic knowledge in this expertise.  With regard to regular specialised training of crew, the executives stressed the need for MARAD or other local responsible agency to offer the programme since at present there is none.  

One of the “gaps” for example as mentioned in the report, according to Rueben Charles, Consultant of PSI, is the absence of lights on the lifebuoys. However, he pointed out that the need for lights on the lifebuoys was not known until the report highlighted this as a safety breach. He further stated that MARAD conducts inspection of the vessels annually before granting the license and based on compliance with all necessary safety regulations. 

He noted that PSI has made significant efforts to ensure quality management system and training of staff. The company has already hired a marine consultant to look at the report, assess PSI operations and make recommendations to make further improvements. 

In response to the concerns, Head of the Inspectorate Unit of the Fisheries Department, Ministry of Agriculture, Denzil Roberts, stated that PSI staff might not have adequately represented themselves during the investigations since the report is based on what the staff related to the investigators. However, he stressed that there is still concerns for safety, and recognising that “one bad apple can spoil the whole barrel,” the operators should used the experience to improve their operations. 

On this note, Minister Persaud agreed that the report should be seen in context of strengthening safety and security, whereby the investigations conducted a review and looked at areas where more could be done to improve operations. Despite this, he decided on the committee that would also involve other business stakeholders to ensure a comprehensive review of the report and its findings.