With plans in place to ensure both their personal safety and that of their equipment, fisherfolk at the River Bay Fishing Village in the western parish of St James in Montego Bay, Jamaica, are bracing for threats that may come this 2023 Atlantic hurricane season.
Last year’s hurricane season produced 14 named storms, eight of which became hurricanes with winds of 119 km/h (74 mp/h) or greater; while two — Fiona and Ian — intensified to major hurricanes.
Jason Johnson, a fisherman and diver at the fishing village, told the Jamaica Observer that measures were established which come into effect each year around this time. He detailed that in their efforts to prevent injuries or possibly deaths, the fisherfolk operating from that location lessen their time out at sea.
“We always draw up the boats and tie them down to keep them safe or we pull them onto land and tie them to the trees here. But when the hurricane season comes, there is nothing that we can do to keep on making money unless you catch a portion of fish and store them up in the fridge. We cannot go to sea and sometimes the water is still dirty when the storms pass, so we cannot see the fish pots,” the fisherman told the Sunday Observer.
A trough across the western Caribbean, including Jamaica, influenced weather conditions across the island last week, causing periods of isolated showers and thunderstorms across sections of this parish. The weather conditions, which eased the fisherfolk into the start of the hurricane season on June 1, saw Johnson and others at the River Bay Fishing Village remaining on land for the majority of the week.
However, Johnson stated that the increase in rainfall isn’t the main concern for fisherfolk, as some still chose to go fishing despite the weather. He told the Sunday Observer that they are mostly worried about the other intense climatic conditions which come during the annual hurricane season.
“The rain is not the problem – the sea being rough is our problem. We can be out there in the rain catching fish and we are safe, but when the wave rises to a level and the boats cannot go on the water then we have a problem,” Johnson said.