Barbados initiates commercial fishing vessel remarking exercise

Barbados: The Fisheries division of Barbados is encouraging the fishermen to re-register their commercial fishing vessels as the division is planning to undertake a re-marking exercise to bring them in line with international standards.

The procedure connecting to the remarking of the fishing vessels is underway and will offer the registration number starting from 8P to the fishing boats. After 8P, the hull number(serial identification number given to a boat or ship) will be followed.

Importantly, 8P is the call sign for Barbados. And, the fishing vessels at present are marked as the motor vehicles are marked, that is with the letter that denotes the parish like X075. Moreover, to change the number or re-register, fishermen can visit the Fisheries Division.

On this, Dr Shelly-Ann Cox, Chief Fisheries Officer, presented that the format being used in Barbados was Paris only, as mentioned in the latter statement. However, the changes which are now introduced in the country were made 15 years ago at the international level.

These were introduced to combat illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing. Considerably, Caribbean countries like St Vincent and the Grenadines and Dominica have already complied with the regulations, and Barbados will be added to this list with this Commercial Fishing Vessel marking Exercise.

And the projection for the completion of this exercise has been made for the end of this year, that is, 2024.

Moreover, many of the boat owners were encouraged to participate in the pilot to determine the effectiveness of the application procedure and its implementation strategy. The pilot had certain objectives, which included promoting the enforcement of regulations for global standards.

These included improving the effectiveness of the operations by the Barbados Fisheries Division, involving the support of implementing and evaluating the successful launch of the remarking exercise.

Considering the recent time’s figures, out of 1156 registered boats, 20 have been remarked during the pilot exercise. Although the boats go through inspection every year in the months of December and January, so, as the boat is applied for inspection, the form for re-registration will be filled out at the same time.