BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – SENIOR Fisheries Officer in the Department of Fisheries Joseph Simmonds said he is in agreement with the concerns and recommendations made by seasoned fisherman Kenneth Samuel concerning the preservation of marine life.

The Department of Fisheries has however declared that it has done all it could and the ball in now in the court of a higher power.

Earlier in this month, SKNVibes spoke with Samuel, a.k.a. ‘Ken’ of Kenneth’s Dive Centre, who explained his concerns about marine life around St. Kitts and what is was some 50 years ago when compared with today’ situation. 

Samuel said the fish, conch and lobster and other marine populations are seriously depleted to the point where, should measures not be addressed immediately, marine life around the island would be extinct.

He made two proposals to deal with this problem:
(1) The imposition of restrictions, whether for a month or a year, which would allow marine life to spawn and replenish; and
(2) The creation of artificial reefs.

The fisherman/diver told this media house that he has written on several occasions to the Department of Fisheries, specifically to Simmonds, expressing his concerns and making recommendations.

SKNVibes spoke with Simmonds about Samuel’s concerns and the correspondence he claimed to have sent to the Department. Simmonds however claimed that he could not recall receiving any letter from Samuel. 

This media house however acquired the copy of a letter dated October 2, 2008 which was addressed from Samuel to the Department of Fisheries. The copy was shown to Simmonds who informed that, according to his investigations, the letter did reach the Department but not his desk. He said too that he is unaware of any other letter sent to his office by Samuel.

However, despite the letters not reaching him, Simmonds said he is aware of Samuel’s concerns as both parties have discussed the issue.

“Verbally Mr. Samuel and I talk about his concerns a lot of times,” Simmonds said.

He reiterated Samuel’s point that the matter is one of urgency, but informed that the Department of Fisheries has done all in its power to address the issue.

“We have laws and so on to deal with these matters. Whatever is happening now is beyond the control of the Department of Fisheries. The Fisheries Department is the one who comes up with these measures to address these concerns. Fisheries...both in St. Kitts and Nevis have come up with several proposals to deal with marine management. So, as far as the Fisheries Department is concerned, we’ve done all we can to address this problem...The reality is we are not given certain resources where we can do what we would like to do. That is the reality. We are not being allocated the resources that we would like to be allocated to deal with these problems.”

Regarding the proposals made by the Department of Fisheries, Simmonds said they have yet to materialise and while the department understands the reality of the situation, it has to wait for resources and instructions from a higher power.

According to Samuel, the letters he wrote to the Department of Fisheries have been copied to the Minister of Housing, Agriculture and Fisheries and the Minister of Tourism.