Latest update September 1st, 2024 12:25 AM
Nov 22, 2023 News
550 days later…
Kaieteur News – The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), an independent institution, had conducted an assessment of the decline in fish stocks locally which reportedly concluded that the phenomena was as a result of climate change, rather than the oil and gas activities ongoing in Guyana’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
Agriculture Minister, Zulfikar Mustapha had committed to releasing the document to the public, however 550 days after the Minister announced the findings of the report it is still to be released.
Mustapha had told this newspaper that the study would be released “when it is convenient to the government” in June last year. Oil giant ExxonMobil has warned in all of its Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA), prepared to date, that its offshore operations could impact marine species, including fish. The conclusion of the report therefore triggered a response by Environmentalist Simone Mangal-Joly who requested both government and the FAO to release the document, to assure the public of the report’s credibility.
In a letter addressed to the Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean, Mr. Julio Berdegue, in May, 2022, Mangal-Joly explained that the statements made regarding the report must be immediately and publicly addressed by the highly respected institution.
“I hereby request that the FAO immediately and publicly address the matter of whether it has credible conclusions on offshore oil and gas impacts on fisheries and release the study to which Minister Mustapha refers with all supporting datasets. By providing this information, the public will be assured of the FAO’s comprehensiveness and neutrality, and the FAO will be able to maintain its image of respectability that the Guyanese People and indeed the People of the Caribbean deserve of a public agency,” she reasoned.
The FAO in response told Mangal-Joly that it used data that is currently available to conclude that the noticeable decline in fish catch was not as a result of the offshore oil operations. Not only that, but the body said that a rapid assessment was conducted to ascertain the situation.
Mr. Julio Berdegue said, “The technical analysis in question was requested by Guyana to contribute to its understanding of these complex catch issues and support decision-making. It is a rapid assessment of reported issues related to fisheries catch between 2020 and 2021 and is based on available data.”
To qualify the conclusion, Berdegue added that “as a specialized agency of the United Nations, FAO adheres to strong scientific principles, and employs the highest professional standards in analyzing and disseminating available data. We are globally respected for practicing impartiality, transparency and accountability in our work, and we promote neutral fora for national dialogue and evidence-based decision-making.”
He therefore assured that when the report is ready and cleared in its final version, it will be made available through appropriate channels. On Tuesday efforts by this publication to contact the Minister of Agriculture were futile.
Oil production impacts to fish
Even as the study is yet to be made public, the reduction in fish catch continues.
Only in September this newspaper reported that ExxonMobil Guyana Limited (EMGL) confirmed that its operations are likely to affect fish and the livelihoods of fishermen, as studies conducted by the company’s Consultant, Environmental Resources Management (ERM) have concluded that the marine species could effectively turn broth during production activities.
During a recent stakeholder engagement, Kaieteur News asked the consultant about the likely impacts to the country’s fisheries sector, amid a declining industry. Research by this publication found that the fishing and shrimp sector have reduced since 2019. Bank of Guyana (BoG) statistics reveal as follows for shrimp (in tonnes) 2019- 15,808, 2020- 13,543, 2021- 10,962 and in 2022- 10,214. Meanwhile, the Bank reported the following production of fish (in tonnes): 2019- 22,336, 2020- 19,993, 2021- 20,628, 2022- 23,389.
ERM’s Senior Project Manager and Technical Support, Jason Willey recently explained that during production activities offshore, the Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessels require sea water to be used as a cooling substance. He also pointed out that the sea water is required on a “continuous basis” for this purpose.
More importantly, Willey, a biologist within the ERM team explained that thousands, if not millions of fish eggs could be lost in the process, should this activity occur during spawning or reproductive season. “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,” he said.
The biologist added, “It also depends on how many of those eggs and larva a certain species produces. Some produce millions of eggs and larva per single female, some produce a handful so it’s a large number of eggs and larva that could potentially be lost.”
Be that as it may, Willey sought to polish his response by indicating that this does not mean Guyana could potentially lose thousands or millions of fish product on the market.
Mineral and oil rich country borrowing to feed, clothe and house its citizens.
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