I am responding to your article ‘EPA says impact study needed of new proposed Exxon drilling programme in Stabroek Block – cites possible cumulative effect’ (SN 18 July 2022). In this article you state, “`With respect to fishery operations there are no impacts that are anticipated due to the distance of the project location and fishing areas. However unplanned events such as a marine oil spill has the potential to impact fishing grounds located …closer to the coastline due to movement of oil slicks’, the report said”.
For the artisanal coastal fishermen, the picture is quite different: according to the monthly data reported by the Bank of Guyana, landed catches of fin fish have been declining for years but the decline has steepened since 2017. Now we can see the livelihoods of the coastal fishermen being degraded further by the careless dumping of mud on their fishing grounds at the mouth of the Demerara River. The deepening of the Demerara Ship Channel, and apparently its widening, by the dredgers of the Luxemburg company Jan De Nul is simply worsening their situation.
Once again, ExxonMobil in its project summary for new drilling offshore has listed a variety of activities with possible negative effects on fish populations. Neither the EPA nor the Fisheries Department is requiring the immensely wealthy ExxonMobil or Hess Corporation or CNOOC to undertake or fund studies on our fishery stocks, to find out if the accelerated drilling and oil production programme is reducing our fish. Has the Vice President for oil even thought about the livelihoods of thousands of people in the fisheries sector before prioritising the oil companies?
Yours truly,
Janette Bulkan
