Fish stock decline or variation

Oct 06, 2023 Editorial

Kaieteur News – A Guyanese fisherman in Essequibo poured his heart out in a recent public consultation held by ExxonMobil. It is clear that he is not a much-lettered Guyanese, but it was clear that he is a very battered one. He pointed an angry, accusing finger at ExxonMobil and its activities and the decline that it has caused in the local fish stock. It is what has gouged a huge hole in his livelihood, impairing his means to provide for his family.

“I need ayo fuh write one cheque fuh couple billion fuh me suh I could mine ma chirren them and stop work a sea because out deh na gat nothing.” We translate from the Creole to regular English for the benefit of foreign readers interested in what is going on in Guyana. What that humble, stricken fisherman was saying is HE NEEDS EXXONMOBIL TO COMPENSATE HIM FOR HIS LOSS OF LIVELIHOOD SO THAT HE CAN LOOK AFTER HIS FAMILY, SINCE THE SEAS HAVE RUN DRY OF FISH.

His impoverishing circumstances are not unique, with many fisherfolk who operate in other fishing fields feeling the same squeezes. They work the increasingly barren fishing grounds longer, and their catch is less, and what they get is not of a very attractive variety. The decline in fishing stock is ongoing and steep. There was some hangup on the part of ExxonMobil’s people at the public consultation for the sixth oil project with the use of the word “decline” to describe what is happening to Guyana’s fishing stock. Being ExxonMobil, the company had a ready verbal sleight of hand to deliver in its nonstop efforts to deceive Guyanese.

Mr. Anthony Jackson, ExxonMobil’s Project Manager, went to great lengths to employ the company’s preference which is “variation” to camouflage what is happening to domestic fish stock and local fisherfolk. It is a clever bit of verbal sparring and maneuvering by ExxonMobil. Decline is very clear as to what it means: fish stock is down, and/or going further down. On the other hand, Mr. Jackson’s cute artistry of “variation” could be that the fish stock is going up or down, but as to which one applies, the record would be murky.

We hope that Guyanese open their minds about what unfolded at that public consultation at Anna Regina, Essequibo. There was ExxonMobil, a multibillion company with an enormous global foot print trying to kerfuffle a simple citizen, who is hurting badly because of the entity’s unrelenting focus on enriching itself in Guyana’s oilfields. This is the company that Guyana’s President Ali, and Vice President Jagdeo speak proudly about, one that mocks ordinary citizens with a construction like “variation” instead of what the situation is, which is decline.

ExxonMobil’s own consultant that it hired to conduct the required environmental study documented that “fish eggs could be lost daily during oil production.” What could be clearer than that, what could be more of a correlation that links fish stock decline (“variation”), which means that when the eggs are destroyed, then there is no fish to follow?

Further, Mr. Jason Willey, a senior officer in the consultancy firm hired by ExxonMobil, gave Guyanese this sobering reality to deal with: “If the intake occurs at a time when like a spawning event happens, let’s say like when the fish are reproducing, and a lot of eggs and a lot of larvae are in the water, there can be thousands lost, potentially many more than that.”

Do Guyanese still need more to determine that there is a link between ExxonMobil’s activities that require seawater and the decline in local fish stock? Intake has a high probability of causing disruption in the life and cycles of marine creatures. In the same way, the chemicals, toxins, and heated liquids that are released into seas are not benign events, but wreak havoc on fish stock. At least there is a level of honesty coming from the ExxonMobil’s consultant. The same cannot be said of the PPP/C Government, which dishonestly points to climate change and seasonal variations as the contributors to decline in fish stock. This is how a weak, possibly comprised government, betrays its citizens, leaving people like that fisherman at the mercy of ExxonMobil.

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