Thorne blames Govt for fishing boat losses

Leader of the Opposition Ralph Thorne has chastised the administration for what he described as the inadequate management of the fishing vessel fleet in preparation for Hurricane Beryl which sank some 20 boats that sought safe harbour in the Bridgetown Fisheries Complex on Monday.

Thorne, who spoke to reporters on the steps of Parliament on Tuesday, accused the government of being more concerned about last Saturday’s ICC Men’s T20 Cricket World Cup final at Kensington Oval than making sure that fishing boats were properly hauled up and secured inland in preparation for the cyclone.

“This government and some of its members were in a revelrous mood at the cricket final when they ought to have been making preparations for this hurricane,” said Thorne.

“The primary victims of this hurricane have been the boat owners and the members of the fishing industry. They were left exposed to a hurricane when the government had adequate notice as to the strength of the hurricane [and] the direction of the hurricane. They have not had an opportunity to save their vessels, and much of the industry has been destroyed – I’d think about 80 per cent or more have been destroyed – when that ought not to have happened.”

The opposition leader insisted that authorities were given ample time to remove vessels from the limited space, which together with the storm surge, led to a number of boats sinking, or being severely damaged.

“The government made parking spaces for people who were going for cricket, and the government ought to have made similar provisions on land for those fishing boats to have been safely kept during the passage of the hurricane. What we had instead, was boat owners having to cluster their boats into a limited space at the Bridgetown Harbour.

“There is no boat at the Bridgetown facility which today has not suffered damage or complete loss, and the government must take responsibility for that.”

Thorne also questioned why the $5 million spent on improvements at Oistins Bay Garden this year was not spent on a proper drainage system, given the challenges that coastal areas have had in the past with flooding.

“The people in Oistins still do not believe that this government committed or spent $5 million in Oistins. Several people who operate businesses in Oistins cynically said [yesterday]: ‘Well they claim they spent $5 million, now the tragedy is that they have to spend about $15 million’.

“They laugh, but it is sardonic laughter because they know and they believe that the government has misled the people of Barbados in terms of its claim that it spent $5 million at Oistins. It ought to have committed that expenditure to the more fundamental work of drainage,” Thorne contended.