Another vessel, suspected to have been bringing illegal fuel from Venezuela, gave the Coast Guard the slip last weekend, moments before it could have been apprehended.
But Commander Terrence Pyle of the army’s marine unit was yesterday optimistic that the vessel could still be nabbed.
“We had spotted another vessel, suspected of running fuel. I suspect that they were on to us [because] they might have seen the aerial reconnaissance and changed course. But we were monitoring the boat and can still intercept it,” Pyle told Stabroek News.
Two Sundays ago, two locally-registered vessels - Babejana and Reina Del Mar - were stopped by the Guyana Defence Force Coast Guard, while transporting 246 drums of fuel between Guyana and Venezuela.
The flagship GDFS Essequibo, which was assisting in operations to monitor the local fisheries zone, detained them.
Pyle, on that occasion, told reporters that the army was aware of the illegal business for some time. Smuggling fuel between Guyana and Venezuela has been a big business for many years, given that the price of fuel in the oil-producing country is very low.
Recently, several Guyanese men were injured and another was reported missing, after a locally registered boat, the Ganga Devi, exploded with more than 100 drums of fuel on board, at a wharf in Venezuela.
Further, in relation to illegal fishing activities in Guyana’s Exclusive Economic Zone, Stabroek News was yesterday told that there has not been a recurrence of illegal fishing since the capture of two Venezuelan trawlers earlier this month.
Pyle said the apprehension of the vessels - the Maria Giovanna II and the Marco Polo - together with over 27,000 pounds of mixed fish and other seafood, might have caused the poachers to reconsider their options.
In this regard, Pyle said, the actions of the Coast Guard can be deemed effective.
At the time of the capture of the vessels, the commander had pointed out that a fleet of at least seven Venezuelan vessels, two of which acted as the “mother” ships onto which the catches were transferred, was working areas of Guyana’s territorial waters.
On one occasion, all six vessels were spotted, but only one was captured.
As to whether the Coast Guard has sufficient vessels to cope with the situation, Pyle told this newspaper yesterday: “One would always say that there is a need for more resources, but we make effective use of the resources we have at hand and would not make the lack of resources an issue.
There is no shortage of innovative ways of dealing with any threat to our Exclusive Economic Zone.” (Kim Lucas)