The Ministry of Maritime Affairs and the Blue Economy will be revisiting the legislation governing the coordinates which designate areas for water sports activities.
This was disclosed by Minister of Maritime Affairs and the Blue Economy, Kirk Humphrey, as he chaired a meeting on Matters of Standards in the Governance of Small Vessel Operations in the BIDC Building No. 2, recently.
He noted that while there were coordinates set for specific areas at Carlisle Bay, the same did not apply for other beaches across the island.
“We have to look at having coordinates for those areas so that water sports activities could occur in specific areas, even on certain beaches. [And], we may have to look at certain beaches and say they can’t occur on this beach,” he said.
Minister Humphrey also indicated that this should be done as a matter of priority at the various beaches to allow people to know where they could come in and go out.
However, he told those present that coordinates alone would not solve the problem as there were also coordinates at Carlisle Bay, and yet there were challenges.
He explained that water sports operators in that area complained that the location of the coordinates did not coincide with where the people were, and resulted in them having to move around in order to make money.
Mr. Humphrey said to overcome this challenge, Government would need to look at changing the legislation.