Dolphins threaten fishermen
Published:Monday | November 15, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Laura Redpath, Senior Gleaner Writer
IT WAS just before noon and Rudolph Bailey stood on the shore in Leith Hall, St Thomas, his fingers expertly weaving a fishing net strung up between two trees like a hammock that swayed in the breeze.
By mid-afternoon, Bailey, his shoulders hunched, was in discussion with fellow fisherfolk about the fight for survival between man and dolphin, while the persistent rain beat down on the shelter provided by a sheet of zinc.
"We can't catch enough fish to supply the area, and the dolphins ... ," he said, with a sigh, his voice trailing off.
The customer base, which includes the more than 1,700 Leith Hall residents, as well as passing motorists, is dwindling, Bailey lamented.
"Those dolphins have been an ongoing problem. You can't set your net. Anytime they tear it out, we lose money, and we have to go back out there.
"That's our main problem as fisherfolk," Bailey said.
As it would turn out, Bailey was actually mending a net after it was ripped apart by a dolphin.
"The dolphins follow the sound of the (boat) engine," chimed in Marcia Ferguson, a fish vendor.
Bailey, who has been a fisherman for more than 40 years, has noted fishing trends over time and said sales were now worse than ever.
While sales were already declining because fishermen like Bailey have been unable to supply the local market sufficiently, he cited the fish scare in Manchester earlier this year for the steep decline.
"From I leave school, I'm a fisherman," he said. "We come here whole day and don't sell anything. Nobody nah buy."
In June, the Ministry of Health confirmed that formaldehyde, typically used in embalming fluids, was used to preserve fish sold in at least one market in Manchester. The situation was subsequently addressed.
"You see from that whole 'balming incident over so, everything just drop," Bailey told The Gleaner.
"But them dolphins," he said, wagging his finger, "you can never go out to sea and come back without your net being damaged. If you pass here 365 days in the year, you will see us mending."
He picked up a reel of thread used for weaving the nets. "Is $750 for a pound of this," Bailey noted.
He uses at least 30lb of thread to make a new net and roughly 3lb for repairs.
"You know how much time we in the water and the dolphin them right side ah we? You know how much time them laugh after we?" he asked rhetorically amid the giggles of fisherfolk.
Ava Tomlinson, senior public education and community outreach officer with the National Environment and Planning Agency, said nothing could be done about the dolphin nuisance, as they were protected under the Wildlife and Protection Act.
"They're just like turtles and will migrate and head back to where they were born," she said.
Stephen Smikle, the acting director of fisheries within the Ministry of Agriculture, agreed.
"The fishermen will have to adjust their fishing patterns. There is no simple solution," he said.