New government vessel to help crack down on illegal fishing
Premier Dr Natalio Wheatley announced that one of the key purposes of the newly acquired vessel by the Ministry of Natural Resources is to combat illegal fishing.
On Friday, October 11, the Ministry held a launching ceremony for the boat named “Vigilate,” which translates to “be watchful.”
Dr Wheatley emphasised that the vessel is vital for “enhancing surveillance of our territorial waters to crack down on illegal fishing, which the Director of Agriculture and Fisheries will be happy about.”
The vessel was funded by a grant of approximately $933,189 from the European Union (EU) in 2022, aimed at improving the territory’s water quality testing capabilities.
According to Environment Officer and Project Coordinator Atoya George, the vessel’s intended use is part of a project called “Strengthening the Virgin Islands Water Quality Monitoring Programme,” designed to support effective environmental management and spatial planning.
“Over the long term, the vessel will help us overcome geographical limitations within the project and enhance our efficiency in tracking changes in aquatic ecosystems and responding to marine pollution,” she stated.
Additionally, the grant builds on previous EU support for environmental management activities in the BVI, delivered through the Resilience, Sustainable Energy and Marine Biodiversity Programme (RESEMBID).
RESEMBID aims to address the challenges within the territory’s water quality monitoring program by focusing on institutional strengthening, capacity building, equipment acquisition, and establishing a baseline for new priority areas and water quality parameters.
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Please do proper maintenance on this vessel
it needs to be stationed on Anegada to stop all the illegal fishing off the north shore by all the US vessels out of Puerto Rico.
You mean all the Chinese fishing trawlers off the north drop. That’s where are these long green lines/nets that wash up on shore are coming from.
@station
You are spot on! Otherwise, this will be another boondoggle purchase so that the boys from Fisheries to go out for a jolly. The Department is already a bureaucratic morass. If they are spending their time giving tickets to tourists with a line off the back of a bareboat, them this is money thrown away.
What on earth does purported illegal fishing got to do with water quality / pollution which the grant is intended to fund.
Ayo paid $933,000 for that?