Fisherfolk operating in the Berbice River are up in arms over damage being caused to their equipment by huge chunks of cut grass floating down the Canje River.
Rishiram Ramkissoon, Chairman of the East Bank Berbice Fishermen’s Co-op Society, also known as the Three-Door Fishermen’s Co-op Society, has said he recently attended a meeting with officials of Region Six, and it has been decided that the grass in the Canje River would be cut into ten-foot portions and allowed to float out to the confluence of the Berbice and Canje rivers.
He said that when that decision was taken, he had suggested that the grass should not be allowed to float out of the Canje River and into the Berbice River.
“It is the same square one that you will end up with when the stuff comes out into the Berbice River, (where it would be) impeding the progress of fishermen.

Now the entire Berbice River is filled with grass. We have some ‘islands’ coming out from the Canje River. The stuff is about 20 feet in length, and the agreement was 10-feet square,” Ramkissoon told Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha. “Even to that I wasn’t in agreement with. Now the fishermen are suffering; the grass is entangling their nets.”
As such, he is calling for assistance for the fishermen, and is cautioning about the impact the issue is having on their livelihoods.
At the time engaging residents of East Bank Berbice communities, Minister Mustapha noted that the issue is an old one, and that systems had been put in place to negate the deleterious effects the cut grass is having on the livelihoods of fisherfolk who ply their trade in the Berbice River.
