Fishermen’s fest scaled down but large catch netted

WHILE THE 2022 Fisherman’s Day celebrations were significantly scaled down,officials were pleased with the participation of fishers at last Monday,s event after an absence of two years.

Nineteen boats registered for the competition and ventured out to sea in the early morning hours of June 6, with 14 returning to the dock at Calliaqua by the 4:30 p.m. cut-off time.

Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Saboto Caesar told SEARCHLIGHT that the decision was taken to proceed with the Whit Monday event, “even though we are going to start with five boats.”

He spoke about the absence of the decades old fishers festival for the past two years due to the outbreak of Covid and the eruptions of La Soufriere noting that, “we had to start somewhere”.The 14 boats that returned to shore hauled in a total of 2,798.31 pounds of fish, with the heaviest catch in the Class 1 being 411 pounds by the boat, ‘Humble Me’ captained by Earl Medford.

The second heaviest catch in that category was 402.8 pounds by the boat, ‘Surprise 2’ captained by Kenroy Bruce, while ‘Ambitions’, captained by Kimron Thomas brought in the third heaviest catch in Class 1, a total of 370.2 pounds. In the Class 1 category for heaviest fish, the boat ‘Ambitions’ returned the heaviest single fish which weighed 28.5 pounds; while ‘Conscious Family’, captained by Javid Mascol brought in the second heaviest single fish which weighed 26.2 pounds; and ‘Sea Shells’, captained by Andrew Gould brought in the third heaviest single fish weighing 16.8 pounds.

The boat named ‘Deep Diver’, and captained by Baptiste Daverson brought in the heaviest catch in Class 2, a total of 60.2 pounds; with ‘Bounce Back’, captained by Shorn Bradshaw returning with 55.1 pounds; and ‘Sharko’, captained by Julian Bradshaw returning with a catch of 50.4 pounds.

The single heaviest fish in Class 2 weighed 21.6 pounds, brought in by ‘Deep Diver’, and taking the second spot in that category was ‘Bounce Back’ with a fish weighing 10.7, while ‘Sharko’ brought in the third heaviest singe fish which weighed 3.71 pounds.

The heaviest shark ,weighing 23.21 pounds was brought in by the boat, ‘Ethano’ captained by Sohan Lucas; while the boat ‘Humble Me’ captained by Earl Medford brought in 305 fish, the largest number of fish by any boat on the day.

Minister Caesar said although they did not have a full slate of activities as usual and having to settle for a scaled down contest he was elated with what transpired.

“I am really happy to know that the fisher folk have participated; without them we won’t have any fish. I’m very satisfied with the response today.”

He said the technicians in the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries, Rural Transformation, and Labour, were out at Calliaqua all weekend making sure that all was in readiness for Monday’s activity.

An official at the Fisheries Division says the prize-giving ceremony has been tentatively set for June 17, 2022.