the company; but with the advent of oil and gas activities offshore, General Manager, Pritipaul Singh has become increasingly worried for what the future holds.

In an interview with this newspaper last week, the businessman highlighted the significant decline in exports recorded by his company between the period 2019 and 2023- from 20 containers monthly to merely two.

With Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) conducted by ExxonMobil repeatedly highlighting impacts to water quality from planned discharges, including chemicals, Singh is calling on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to conduct an independent investigation of how these discharges are affecting the ecosystem of marine life.

He explained: “My biggest concern is that we have seen since 2015 to 2020 a decline in our catch and this is because of the seismic exploration which could drive the seafood species away.”

Singh has invested in 107 fishing boats to date, with a processing facility that cost him about US$50M. With outstanding commitments to the bank, the businessman said he has decided to highlight his concerns in the media, with the intent of attracting the assistance of government and related agencies to help keep his organization afloat.

PSI exports over 90% of its catches; the company is therefore a key player in this country’s economy when it comes to propping up Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures for the industry. As the company continues to see declines in profits, it is calling for urgent intervention.

“I could also say that the fingerlings of the sea bob, we would see huge volumes of fingerlings and we expect that the fingerlings would grow bigger but it don’t. That’s the general trend in our early years. Let’s say 2010 to 2015, those were the general trend, the small shrimp would get big but there is no more small shrimp when you see a lot of fingerlings, there is no germination, it dies,” the General Manager shared. (Kaieteur News)