GRENADIAN AUTHORITIES are complaining of a growing trend of Barbadian fishermen illegally selling their catches to locals and business places in the Spice Isle. The charge followed last week’s incident in which three Barbadian fishing boats came under the scrutiny of customs and fishing authorities there for selling their catches without licences. But Roland Baldeo, Grenada’s senior fisheries officer, said the incident did not occur as stated by Henderson Jordan,owner of one of the three boats, Sihor III. “They (Barbadian fishermen) were actually caught selling their catch on the Carenage. The three captains admitted to their guilt and were fined $500 each by the minister of fisheries for their illegal act,” Baldeo told the DAILY NATION yesterday from St George’s. He said one of the three boats, Peacemaker, was also fined an additional $500 by the customs department for not getting clearance to sell its catch. Baldeo said authorities were concerned about the developing trend in the Spice Isle where Barbadian fishermen were illegally selling to nightclubs, restaurants and other local businesses. He also charged that the catch of the broken-down Sihor III was transferred to a Grenadian boat and sold in the local market. “They off-loaded the boat, which included swordfish, tuna, marlin and dolphin, and headed to the market where the catch was sold,” Baldeo said. “It happens pretty regularly and many times we don’t have the evidence to take action, but in this case we had the evidence. “I think our story needs to be told that the men signed an agreement with the minister of their guilt. They were not arrested and they were not detained. Even when we picked them up [last] Wednesday, we had all rights to detain them but we did not. They were able to stay on the boat and move around as they wanted to.” Meanwhile, Inspector Cosmas Douglas of the Grenada Coast Guard took issue with the earlier report which said the three Barbadian boats were seized by his unit. “We never arrested the boats. We were simply asked by fisheries and customs to escort the boats after they were caught selling on the Carenage,” he said. Douglas said there were reports that some Barbadian fishermen would catch fish between Grenada and Tobago and sell it in Grenada before making a second catch which would then be brought to Barbados. When contacted last night, Jordan said for a long time boat-owners had been hearing of Barbadian fishermen selling their catches in Grenada, a practice which they did not support. However, he denied that the boat crews at the centre of the current controversy had admitted guilt of their own free will. Instead, he charged, they were given an ultimatum that the alternative would have been imprisonment for the boat captains if they decided to challenge the matter in the law courts. “I paid the fines because I know that the fishing industry is not represented by the unions or anybody,” Jordan said. Reprinted from nationnews.com