A small fishing boat travelling to help a fishing crew that was attacked by pirates this past weekend capsized on Saturday, leaving 3 out of the 4 crew members unaccounted for.
Pirates targeted 15 fishing boats in a 24-hour spree in waters of Guyana’s Pomeroon river on Friday.
Reports sent in to the Maritime Administration and Coast Guard allege that on Friday, fisherman were intercepted by violent pirates brandishing sabres, who tied them up, beat them and stole the motors from their boats, as well as any other valuable materials on board. Several boats were sunk and fisherman were found drifting in the river.
The vessel that capsized Saturday had gone out to bring an extra motor to one of the stranded boats. It appears the boat capsized because of a storm bringing rain and treacherous waters.
The Guyana Defense Force and Coast Guard plans to meet in the coming weeks to come up with a plan to address the problem. One possible step is to put GPS on fishing boats, which would help plot the areas of attacks, but would do little to deter them.
Although all 15 fisherman were rescued and relatively unharmed, these generally impoverished people suffered irreparable damage to their delicate economic situations. Unless Guyana can do something to deter pirate attacks, its local fisherman will be subject to future exacerbated harassment.
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