Jullan Defoe, Minister of state in the Ministry of Agriculture, fisheries Blue and Green Economy, with special responsibility for fisheries and blue economy in the Commonwealth of Dominica, sat in an interview discussing the country’s development with a special focus on the fisheries industry.
The Minister has several years of experience in the fisheries department, which largely formed the basis of the interview. During the interaction with the media representative, Minister Defoe discussed the effect of hurricanes on the fisheries industry.
The Caribbean region regularly deals with Hurricanes. Accordingly, the Minister, Jullan Defoe, noted they had overcome many challenges. He clarified that while most people speak about recent hurricane disasters, Maria and Erica, the Fisheries sector has faced even more challenges.
Even going back earlier than that, The Minister recollected the 2007 hurricane Dean, which damaged the Fisheries sector significantly. Minister Defoe asserted that the Government made a significant contribution to rehabilitation efforts. However, one year later, in 2008, Dominica had another hurricane, Oracle, which devastated a deficient fleet on the West coast.
Minister of agriculture and fisheries again asserted that Government came in and provided 100% support. Accordingly, he shared that while people speak about Eric and Maria, the sector has been receiving impacts from tropical storms and hurricanes. In these issues, Government has interceded every time.
He informed his interviewer that during his tenure in the Department of Fisheries, he oversaw the initiatives and implemented many programmes for recovering the sector after the hurricanes.
He talked about his experience in the field, noted that he has handled many of these programs, and knows what the department has done and what we have, where this industry was and where it is now and where we are striving to go. That provides a good summary of where we want to go with this discussion. He explains the challenges, how we’ve overcome them, and what we want to implement to continue improving.
The interviewer further asked the Minister about his experience as a new minister, handling the responsibility for the Ministry of Agriculture, fisheries, and green and blue economy. She added that if you are a practitioner in fisheries and the wider economy, the expectation is greater when you have achieved a higher office.
Minister Jullan Defoe responded that he was trying to push several initiatives when he was a Chief Fisher’s officer and a normal practitioner. After becoming a minister and getting the responsibility for the Ministry of fisheries, he is in the ideal spot and place to influence and educate my colleagues because this field may be farfetched on many people’s minds.
