Dolphins are ruining our livelihood
While many people consider dolphins to be cute and friendly creatures, Rudolph Bailey and other fishermen along the Leith Hall main road see them only as nuisances to their livelihood.
"Some a the time when we go a sea and them come pan the net, we just affi tek up wiself and come home back because them nah leave. Them just a tear out the fish outta the net," said Bailey, who has been a fisherman for the past 40 years.
Bailey, 61, often travels out to sea with two other persons. He said that they encounter sharks, too, but dolphins do more damage to their nets.
"Dem (dolphins) have more knowledge than the sharks, because the sharks will come in the net and it knot dem up. But you see the dolphins, dem a hol' the fish by dem head and draw dem out. Dem full a knowledge, you can't even go near them. All wi affi do a leave when dem a gwaan bad and come in to shore," he said.
Bailey said they are forced to buy nets to repair the broken ones, which is sometimes costly.
"One pound a net a fi 'bout $1,100, so one pound a fish can't buy it back, because one pound a fish a fi 'bout $450, and we affi sell like three pound a fish to buy one pound a net," he said.
He said that the dolphins sometimes lay in wait for them to head out and then follow them and wait for them to make a catch. He said that his last encounter with them was a month ago.
"If me go sea 10 time, they will trail wi, like, six times. Sometimes we nuh see them fi a while, but them circle the area. Dem wi leave yah so and gone fi all one month, and then you see them come back," he said.
The fishermen admitted that there is nothing they can do, so whenever the dolphins are around, they just expect to lose.
"From me leave school, this a my job and there is nothing to me like this. A nuh all the time we as fisherman lose, enuh, a just some a the times," said Bailey. "We nuh too worry 'bout the shark dem still, enuh, because the shark dem wi eat, get dem belly full and gone. But the dolphin dem nah leave. It look like dem belly caa full."