Local fishermen could soon be trained in the area of oil spill response, US oil giant ExxonMobil said today. The company believes that it would be in the best interest of the fishermen to be equipped with this critical knowledge.
Safety and Environmental officer of ExxonMobil’s local operation, Michael Persaud made the disclosure at the Environmental Protection Agency‘s (EPA) Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) meeting which was at the Fish Port Complex at Number 66 Village, Corentyne Berbice.
According to Persaud, the National Oil Spill Response Committee which includes officials from EPA, the Ministry of Health and the Guyana Defence Force’s (GDF) Coast Guard, has been conducting oil spill response training. He said the Response Committee has already presented a draft oil spill response plan that includes a proposition of training of the fisher folk.
“They are the guys who go out there, they know the water, they know the resource and there is nobody who is better than those folks who know it,” Persaud said. He added that the Ministry of Agriculture’s Fisheries Department will engage with the committee to ensure that the fishermen have practical and theoretical training.
