When Jesus had received the vinegar, He said, “It is finished,” and bowed his head and gave up the spirit. – John 19:30
Tomorrow will see the official close of the sea egg season and I doubt that officials from the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries will extend it.
From all reports it would seem as though the season, which was for one month, was not a good one because fisherfolk (divers) were very disappointed. Some divers in the Bathsheba area complained that after two weeks there were no more sea eggs to be harvested.
The situation in the area was compounded because divers came from St John, St Philip and Christ Church and harvested off Bathsheba. That was not fair to the local divers. I found that to be very strange because places like Foul Bay in St Philip and Silver Sands in Christ Church are usually good areas for sea egg diving, but not this time.
The question that must be asked is: why did divers from other parishes have to come to Bathsheba? And yet there was an official ban for so many years? Where have the sea eggs from those places gone? Why did the season last for two to three weeks only and yet there was a ban for over seven years? It would seem that the ban has not done the industry any good or people were harvesting during the close season.
Something has to be wrong somewhere. In the past harvesting was done in the “R” months – September, October, November, December, January, February, March and April – which gave six months of reaping. It is very clear to me that something is wrong and there is a problem. The question that also must be asked is: where have all the sea eggs gone?
My suggestion is that since the ban was on for so long and still there are no sea eggs, why not open the season for the normal six-month period starting from next year.