THA issues fresh jet ski warning for Pigeon Point, Buccoo

The To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly’s Di­vi­sion of En­vi­ron­ment, Cli­mate Re­silience and En­er­gy to­day is­sued a pub­lic no­tice re­mind­ing op­er­a­tors that jet skis and per­son­al wa­ter­craft are not al­lowed in Pi­geon Point Her­itage Park, Buc­coo Reef Ma­rine Park, Buc­coo Beach and nearshore ar­eas.

The no­tice ex­pands on com­ments made on Thurs­day by Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine, who said jet skis were not al­lowed in the ma­rine park fol­low­ing the death of sev­en-year-old An­gel­i­ca Saydee Jo­gie.

To­day’s no­tice is the first for­mal pub­lic re­minder to specif­i­cal­ly in­clude Buc­coo Beach and near­by coastal ar­eas.

The re­stric­tion ap­plies to all op­er­a­tors, both com­mer­cial and pri­vate.

The no­tice al­so stat­ed that all ma­rine ac­tiv­i­ties, in­clud­ing reef tours, snorkelling, div­ing and glass-bot­tom boat op­er­a­tions, re­quire writ­ten ap­proval.

The an­nounce­ment comes days af­ter An­gel­i­ca was struck by a jet ski while in­side a des­ig­nat­ed bathing area at Pi­geon Point, To­ba­go, where she had been spend­ing the East­er hol­i­days with her fam­i­ly.