10-17-2021, 09:07 AM
Before GPS it was Decca as the means for navigation . Very few fisherman had any of that stuff hence many fishermen lost their lives because they weren't sure where they were going . that is why I was hired by the St . Elizabeth Coop to run some nav courses . I brought down quite a few old GPS units from here that were just fine and handed them out to the small boats .The 20-25ft boats took out 2 fisherman and headed to the Pedro banks to fish . If a storm came they would leave their boats drift and all come in in one boat . When they went back out they would have to look for their boats but they would all drift within a few miles of each other so when you found one the others were around . The boats weren't big enough to take enough fuel with them so they had to buy it out there along with bait from the fish barges from Kingston and Black River . These barges also had food aboard so if you didn't sell your fish to them you had no bait no fuel no food . Sometimes these little boats would stay out for 2 weeks at a time . Not the kind of fishing life I would want to live .
The Pedro Banks are 25-40ft deep with the surrounding water 300 ft deep . A lot of the fishermen use to dive to the bottom to get conch . You would see boats from Honduras out there to.You would see Blue Marlin out there with very fancy charter boats fishing them . Boats that had USA registration You would see " mystery " boats in the nights running wide open . I wonder what they had aboard .
The Pedro Banks are 25-40ft deep with the surrounding water 300 ft deep . A lot of the fishermen use to dive to the bottom to get conch . You would see boats from Honduras out there to.You would see Blue Marlin out there with very fancy charter boats fishing them . Boats that had USA registration You would see " mystery " boats in the nights running wide open . I wonder what they had aboard .