Tobago jet ski operators want exclusive access to Buccoo beach

Stephon Nicholas

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

Fac­ing the pos­si­bil­i­ty of their in­dus­try be­ing shut down, jet ski own­ers in To­ba­go are now des­per­ate to re­pair their im­age and find a place to op­er­ate from. Buc­coo beach is one of the ar­eas they are tar­get­ing, hop­ing the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly will lift the jet ski ban there and al­low them ex­clu­sive use of the site.

This in the wake of the jet-ski ac­ci­dent on Pi­geon Point beach last Wednes­day that claimed the life of sev­en-year-old An­gel­i­ca Jo­gie, a Stan­dard One stu­dent of San Fer­nan­do TML.

An­gel­i­ca and her fam­i­ly were on va­ca­tion on the is­land when a jet-ski op­er­a­tor breached the zone for bathing on­ly and crashed in­to her and three oth­er rel­a­tives. She was pro­nounced dead at the Scar­bor­ough Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal.

The fol­low­ing day, Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine said he was fed up talk­ing and is con­sid­er­ing an out­right ban on jet skis.

At an emer­gency meet­ing in Calder Hall on Mon­day, jet ski and reef boat own­ers con­vened to dis­cuss their predica­ment. Many own­ers agreed a cru­cial el­e­ment to win back pub­lic opin­ion was to clean up the im­age of op­er­a­tors.

“We have to do some­thing about the sub­stance abuse — the weed, the al­co­hol, in­tox­i­ca­tion,” own­er Aj­mal Mustapha told his peers.

A con­sen­sus was reached that there are a few op­er­a­tors prone to be ine­bri­at­ed while work­ing and that this must be stamped out. The hus­tler men­tal­i­ty per­me­at­ing not just the jet-ski in­dus­try but reef boats as well was al­so ad­dressed

Own­ers said this has caused chaos in the past, with some jet-ski op­er­a­tors even ply­ing their trade at the world-fa­mous Ny­lon Pool.

“We nev­er used to be there long time. Jet skis dri­ving all be­tween peo­ple in the Ny­lon Pool,” mar­itime sur­vey­or and own­er Ri­car­do Al­fred said.

On Sat­ur­day, the Di­vi­sion of En­vi­ron­ment an­nounced that jet skis are not al­lowed in the Buc­coo Reef Ma­rine Park, Pi­geon Point Her­itage Park and Buc­coo beach. This has left own­ers con­tem­plat­ing where ex­act­ly they could legal­ly launch from.

Al­fred told col­leagues that ac­cess to Buc­coo was piv­otal to op­er­a­tions, as oth­er lo­ca­tions are not fea­si­ble.

“The thing is, the beach in Buc­coo, this was done and main­tained and done by pri­vate own­ers such as my­self, in terms of the slip­way. It is the on­ly area where THA ves­sels and oth­er boat peo­ple launch com­fort­ably,” he said.

Own­ers said a pro­pos­al will be put to the THA for ex­clu­sive op­er­a­tions in Buc­coo or, al­ter­na­tive­ly, Store Bay, since there was a gen­uine fear of bathers and jet ski op­er­a­tors co-ex­ist­ing at Buc­coo.

Own­ers say they were cog­nisant of the neg­a­tive fall­out since the in­ci­dent and the pre­car­i­ous po­si­tion they are in.

“If any­thing hap­pens again, is best you pack up your jet skis and put it on­line to sell,” Al­fred said.

On the pos­si­ble ex­clu­sive use is Store Bay, how­ev­er, Mustapha said there are three op­er­a­tors who cur­rent­ly use there and adding more may trig­ger a turf war.

“It is gonna have these fel­las un­easy and it is gonna be a re­al hus­tle. You look­ing for an­oth­er calami­ty.”

He sug­gest­ed a float­ing dock be placed way off Pi­geon Point and a toll be im­ple­ment­ed for its use.

“It’s a way for the coun­try to make mon­ey. You an­chor up your skis and ply your trade. They do that in the Ba­hamas and a cou­ple is­lands. Why we can’t do it?”

Al­fred said the onus was on own­ers to set the in­dus­try stan­dard.

“The aim re­al­ly is to treat with the own­ers - it is their work­ers. They have to con­trol their work­ers... I am say­ing as an own­er, put the li­a­bil­i­ty on me. We have to con­trol our en­vi­ron­ment and the peo­ple that rep­re­sent us.”

Al­fred said the To­ba­go Wa­ter and Trails As­so­ci­a­tion was on the cusp of be­ing formed when the in­ci­dent hap­pened. He said or­gan­is­ing them­selves is cru­cial to en­sur­ing com­pli­ance among mem­bers and li­ais­ing with the au­thor­i­ties on those who are op­er­at­ing il­le­gal­ly.

An­oth­er ma­jor con­cern for stake­hold­ers is their abil­i­ty to get in­sur­ance amid the fall­out from the Pi­geon Point in­ci­dent. How­ev­er, Al­fred said a bond is be­ing con­sid­ered as an al­ter­na­tive.

“It is gonna be very dif­fi­cult but not im­pos­si­ble. The reg­u­la­tion speaks to pub­lic li­a­bil­i­ty. We know it as in­sur­ance but it can come in cer­tain forms.”

Reef boat own­ers al­so com­plained ve­he­ment­ly about the 10 am to 5.30 pm op­er­at­ing hours for the Buc­coo Reef Ma­rine Park, as an­nounced on April 2. Op­er­a­tors want a lat­er clos­ing time.

Con­tact­ed yes­ter­day, En­vi­ron­ment Sec­re­tary Dar­ren Hen­ry said a meet­ing of stake­hold­ers was held on Mon­day and the is­sue of a safe lo­ca­tion for them to op­er­ate from was ini­tial­ly dis­cussed.

“We spoke to two of the pro­pri­etors yes­ter­day. We are gonna meet up with them on the week­end to look at ar­eas they can op­er­ate from,” he said, not­ing the di­vi­sion is al­so amenable to ad­just­ing the ma­rine park op­er­at­ing hours.

“We can have that dis­cus­sion, but for now, what’s in place is that they have to in­form us of their ac­tiv­i­ties pri­or. We know things can hap­pen spur of the mo­ment, you can have a group com­ing in to­day for to­day, but they need to let us know what is hap­pen­ing.”

Hen­ry said the in­ci­dent had over­shad­owed what was a suc­cess­ful pe­ri­od for tourism.

“It was heart-wrench­ing and trau­mat­ic for me to see a young child killed. It was dis­turb­ing. We can do bet­ter.”