Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer
Fishermen pull their boat out of the Kingston Harbour in preparation for Hurricane Dean, yesterday.

Claudine Housen, Staff Reporter

WESTERN BUREAU:

As the island braces for Hurricane Dean, members of the fishing industry are reporting a 100 per cent state of readiness in the event of its passage. Stakeholders within the fishing industry have created a structured action plan to reduce the cost of damage.

The industry has yet to regain its footing since the passage of hurricanes Ivan, Dennis and Emily in 2004 and 2005 respectively.

"We are absolutely prepared," said Havland Honeyghan, chairman of the Jamaica Fishermen Cooperative Union (JFCU) and the Gillings Gully Fishermen Cooperative in Westmoreland. "We have a proper communication link with the Jamaica coast guard and the marine police. We have also done our course of action, up to late yesterday (Friday) evening, by ensuring that no fishers were left on the Pedro keys and checking along the shoreline of Jamaica to make sure that all the fisherman are in from sea."

Prepared

He added: "The fishermen are prepared. I have been getting reports from across the island. There are some fishermen down in Negril who are about a mile offshore. Those men have been taking in their traps because the sea surge will destroy the traps. They are about a mile offshore doing that presently, but no one has been venturing out five to 10 miles - no."

Stating that this could not have been a worse time for a hurricane to hit the island, Mr. Honeyghan lamented the shortage of the proper wire to make fish pots that is already threatening the fishermen's livelihood.

"It could not have been a worse time," he said. "This is almost when the good fishing season begins. There is a shortage of mesh wire now. With the strength of the hurricane and the extent of the gale force winds from the centre, the entire Pedro banks, we will again be devastated like in Ivan.'"

"We lost over $66 million worth of traps in Ivan. We may not lose that much now (due to Hurricane Dean), but we will run into hundreds of thousands because this time of year to January is the best fishing period for fishermen in the south of Jamaica. October to November is when most fishermen along the coast will want to get some new pots out to sea, because this is the time that the price of fish drops, so they have to depend on volume."