Diana McCaulay | Who speaks for the river?

I watched an 11-minute recorded video of an interview with fish farmer Donnie Bunting on July 7 on the subject of the restocking of the Rio Cobre with Tilapia, following the disastrous fish kill, which occurred in July 2022, allegedly caused by effluent from WINDALCO’s refinery at Ewarton.

Mr Bunting outlined some facts. Different species of Tilapia were introduced into Jamaica, starting in the late 1940s or early 1950s as part of a food programme in the wake of World War II. They quickly multiplied and spread, and now there are few rivers in the country where they are not dominant because they outcompeted native species. They are hardy, fast-growing, resilient herbivores and are, therefore, ideally suited as a food source for people. And there is no other stock of fish available to introduce to the Rio Cobre.

Mr Bunting queried the expertise that reportedly guided the restocking exercise. He said there are only three people in the country with the required qualifications and experience – himself, Mr John Carberry, formerly of Aquaculture Jamaica Ltd, and Dr Fred Hanley, also formerly of Aquaculture Jamaica Ltd, part of the Jamaica Broilers Group – who, full disclosure, happens to be my husband. They were not consulted. But that is not the only expertise needed to guide this matter – none of these men are river ecologists. Undoubtedly, restocking the Rio Cobre with a species common in Jamaican rivers is best for the fishers. But where is the voice of the agency set up to speak for the river itself – the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA)?

INVASIVE SPECIES

The various species of Tilapia brought into Jamaica are native to Africa, and they are a well-documented invasive species in other parts of the world. Here, as in many places, even where they were not deliberately introduced to rivers, they escaped to rivers and streams from fish ponds, and soon, native species were extremely rare. According to Dr Hanley, “Tilapia will eat anything they can fit in their mouth – the eggs of other species, and in certain circumstances, even their own fry.”

Nor are Tilapia the only invasive species to be found in our rivers. We also have Australian redclaw and catfish and, perhaps, many others.

Why should we care? Simply put, invasive species impoverish complex food webs, threaten biological diversity, cause extinctions, and reduce ecological resilience.

We were promised an ecological assessment by the environment minister, Matthew Samuda, in the wake of the July 2022 fish kill. A reasonable expectation was that an ecological assessment would be carried out by an ecologist, preferably a river ecologist, and that once it was done, we would know certain things about the Rio Cobre: What species were present and where? What was the water quality like? Did native species survive anywhere? Where were the main impacts from human activity? Were there opportunities to reverse the damage done to the river? And from this study, there would be a set of recommendations to guide not only experts in fish farming, but the agency with the legal mandate to ensure that our rivers are not merely channels of water to provide food, irrigation, and fresh water for people, and a repository for our waste, but living ecosystems on which we still depend. That agency is the NEPA.

POLITICISATION

But that opportunity was squandered. A ridiculous politicisation of the issue has emerged. At the time of this writing, the ‘ecological assessment’ has not been released to the public, so we don’t know which experts were consulted, what they found, or what they recommended. In fact, the contracting of the ecological assessment seems to have been handed to the polluting company, whose unknown experts recommended a species vulnerable to predation by birds for restocking.

The NEPA took some action against WINDALCO in the wake of this major pollution event, including the ‘calling’ of the performance bond, some compensation for fishers, and the requirement of the expansion of the Effluent Holding Pond. But several deadlines have been missed, notices of intention to suspend permit have passed their expiry dates, and now this secretive, botched, and ill-considered restocking of the Rio Cobre is under way. It is worth noting that the fish that died were of commercial size, so to replace them with juveniles due to the personal generosity of a private citizen is not compensating the fishers for the damage they suffered as they must now wait four to six months for the new fish to attain a catchable size.

Once again, the NEPA has demonstrated a shocking lack of commitment to its mandate.

Diana McCaulay is the founder of the Jamaica Environment Trust. Send feedback to diana.mccaulay@gmail.com