THE people of Opu-Okunmbiri community in Brass Local Government Area of Bayelsa State have regretted the daily unwarranted attacks by trawlers on fishermen/women on the continental shallow waters by the Atlantic Ocean.
The plight of Opu-Okumbiri indigent has become unbearable, as many have suffered serious injuries, some are dead while others are on sickbed nursing bullet wounds in the coastal community.
Community Liaison Officer of Opu-Okumbiri, Mr. Domo Adam, who spoke to journalists in Yenagoa, the state capital, lamented the incessant encroachment on the coastal community waters, with many suffering from bullet wounds, and called on state and federal governments to swiftly intervene to avert possible breakdown of law and order in the area.
Adams averred that the menace of the trawler attack had become worrisome, condemnable and unacceptable to Opu-Okumbiri people, whose natural occupation was fishing in the open continental shallow water on the Atlantic Ocean to fend for their families.
According to him, the trawlers ought to respect boundaries on the waterways, stressing that trawlers, by law, should operate in the deep waters of the Atlantic Ocean, noting that for them to encroach on water navigated by fishermen/women on canoe was against territorial water laws.
“Beyond the encroachment, the trawler operators often shoot sporadically to scare rural coastal dwellers, and in the process, stray bullets could hit innocent fishermen/women, not sparing their fishing gears that had been destroyed by the trawlers.”
The Community Liaison Officer posited that there were reported incidences of loss of various types of fishing nets and hook lines both day and night that were very expensive to replace.