No touting at Buccoo Marine Park

KINNESHA GEORGE-HARRY

THE long-standing issue of aggressive touting at the Buccoo Marine Park will be a thing of the past as 18 tour operators have agreed to work together to sustain the park for future generations.

The announcement was made by electoral representative for Canaan/ Bon Accord Clarence Jacob at the reopening of the park on Monday during an official ceremony at the Store Bay Beach Facility.

The Buccoo Marine Park is the only marine protected area in TT, which is restricted to some level of human activities, so designed to protect ecologically important species and ensure environmental protection. It is located in southwest Tobago near the Pigeon Point and Buccoo Bay and includes the world-famous Nylon Pool and No Man’s Land, as well as other popular areas such as the Bon Accord Lagoon and Coral Gardens.

On March 24, the Division of Food Production, Forestry and Fisheries, through a press release, noted that the park would be temporarily restricted as a precautionary measure to combat the spread of covid19.

However, the park remained closed when the Prime Minister announced the reopening of beaches on June 22.

The park's reopening on Monday included the handing over of the refurbished ticketing booth at Store Bay and the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Tobago House of Assembly and Store Bay Reef Operators Association.

Jacob said: “We have a million-dollar industry and we used to treat it as a $5 industry. I think now is a perfect opportunity for all the operators to come together and...enhance the tourism product, because we in Tobago we don’t have any industries, really, but we have a million-dollar industry as the Marine Park and I think we should make all opportunities to the success of this.”

Jacob also called for a jetty for people to board boats going on reef tours.

President of the Store Bay Reef Operators Association Dexter Black said the reopening of the park marks a culmination of initiatives by the Assembly and the association to address long-standing issues affecting the operations.

“It’s historic in the sense that we could have 18 operators agreeing to have one common goal. In the past, it has been so desperate where it literally spilled over into the streets. So, we are trying to save the image and rebuild the image of Tobago as we go forward towards sustainable development of tourism for future generations,” he said adding that the tour operators also received training recently.

Secretary of Food Production, Forestry and Fisheries Hayden Spencer said the Assembly is keen on the sustainable utilisation and management of the Buccoo Reef, the Nylon Pool and the general environment in that area.

“This natural and God-given asset to the people of Tobago and Trinidad and Tobago is recognised worldwide, over the decades it has been one of the primary tourist attractions to visitors,” he said.

In delivering the feature address, Chief Secretary Ancil Dennis said the park must be seen as a very important space for a number of reasons.

“Therefore, we must ensure that we manage the space in a sustainable way because I tend to believe that anything that is not managed will disintegrate to the point of destruction.

“This space, it can be described as a feeding trough, where a number of persons earn a living, a number of persons make money and they ply their trade and they operate businesses. Therefore, the question in my mind was basically: how do we operate in a way where everybody can 'eat a food' as we like to say, without necessarily kicking over the feeding trough.

"I am sure none of us would want a situation where we are living in this time, we are enjoying this space, we are benefiting from this natural resource and because of our failure to manage it in a sustainable manner, future generations – our children, our grandchildren, jet ski operators of tomorrow, reef boat operators of tomorrow – are unable to benefit in the same way that we did and therefore we have to up our game in Tobago with respect to tourism.”

Dennis acknowledged the shortcomings in the industry and urged Tobagonians to rectify the issues.

“I am sure that all of us can admit and I am prepared to admit that our tourism in Tobago is not at the level we would want it to be, therefore we must work hard as a Tobagonian. As a product of Buccoo, I am prepared to work hard, I am prepared to provide the kind of leadership to ensure that (we) quickly improve our tourism sector here in Tobago.”

He commended the 18 registered reef boat operators for the collaboration and co-operation they have entered into with the Assembly.

“The work has only now begun. We must ensure that we continue to collaborate, we must continue to ensure that we provide the requisite leadership, especially those who head the various associations and departments. We must ensure that we continue to be united because, of course sometimes our own personal agendas, sometimes this thing called selfishness which is a character trait of many of us as part of the human species, sometimes that could get the better of us.

"But I am cautioning all of us to ensure that at the end of the day, we see the bigger picture, more than our own personal bank accounts, more than our personal agendas. That we see the bigger picture that is Tobago and of course, Tobago must continue to develop beyond ordinary.”