The Emergency Agricultural Livelihoods and Climate Resilient Project (EALCRP) of the MoBGEANFS is currently training twenty-five (25) boat builders and their assistants.
The Boat Building Training Module of the Fisheries Component of the Project started on June 14, 2022, and will end in September. The venue is the Hope Boat Building Facility in Layou Village.
The training will be two-phased, facilitated virtually and in-person by consultant naval architect, Mr. Derrick Menezes from India.
Phase one is the theoretical training component which was started on June 14 and will last for two weeks. Phase two is the practical training that allows participants a hands-on approach to the construction of the ‘plug and mold’ and will run from July 4, 2022, until early September 2022.
The 25 participants consist of six boat builders who each brought along two additional youth trainees. The rest include Youth trainees.
The training will prioritize making boats more resilient for the hurricane season. It is expected that, at the end of the training, participants will be able to build better boats for local fishermen so that in times of disaster, fishing boats will be ready to withstand these impacts.
According to Chief Fisheries Officer, Julian Defoe, previously there was the engine component where fishers received their engines and now they are benefitting from the boat building and enhancement part of the project.
“What is going on now is the capacity building for the boat builder which goes into several phases and the reason why we have resorted to this online platform [is] because of the Covid-19 pandemic and the naval architect who is from India and is unable to travel,” he explained.
Currently, the fishers are being taught the theory of how to construct a plug, and subsequent to that, they will construct the mold for the design of the boats that will be constructed.
Meantime, Defoe said the Roseau Fishers Complex will also have a marketing entity that’s expected to deliver additional production for marketing and processing for local consumption as well as to improve standards.
Any initiative is better than no initiative, and therefore this one deserves credit.
But having said that, for our fishing fleet to be viable beyond supplying the local market, we need larger vessels with deepfreeze and crew accommodation, vessels that can stay at sea for a number of days.
Going back and forth each day in small glass-fibre boats powered by gas guzzling outboard motors is not the way forward.
I might add that the average working life of a well-built wooden boat is sixty years. The raw material for construction is environmentally friendly and available right here in Dominica.