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With the 2025 hurricane season already causing unease, fishermen from Great Bay Beach in southern St Elizabeth are calling on their Member of Parliament Floyd Green to do more to support their battered livelihoods.

They say it's not enough to speak about fishing in Parliament, it's time for real investment and engagement.

"We want to see Floyd Green personally, sit with him, show him how we can help out the local fishermen," said Lenax 'Presley' Stewart, a seasoned fisherman and chairman of the soon-to-be-formed Great Bay Fishermen's Association. When THE STAR visited the beach recently, most boats were ashore. The winds were strong, but Stewart said that's not the only thing keeping them on land.

"There is no fish. The hurricane mash up everything," he said, explaining that last year's Hurricane Beryl didn't just damage homes, it wrecked the seabed.

"Beryl really handled the seabed bad. It stir the bottom, cause plenty sand, and it cover the rocks where the fish dem usually deh. Now it need another weather -- east or north wind - to dig back the rock so we can catch again," said Stewart.

He added that lobsters, which usually co-exist with other marine life, now dominated the area, forcing fish like parrot, doctor, and turbit into retreat.

June is usually when fish start to return, but the delay has left fishermen struggling to earn. Stewart, who is in his 60s and has been experiencing hurricanes since 1978, described Beryl as the worst yet.

"I don't want one more like that to come again because, God Almighty, I don't know if prayer can help it. It's rough. It take off my house top; start from about the first hard breeze start blow. And we out in a it the whole time. Me never did a live, mi just a wait until me dead, because the breeze was so hard. The leaves and stuff paste on pon we," he said.

Nearly a year after the storm, some gear sheds and public bathrooms on the beach are still under repair. Stewart acknowledged that recovery efforts began, but he believes persons haven't completely recovered, especially those who lost everything.

"First thing I did [was] walk and pick up back zinc fi cover one room and a bathroom. But we get some help; people from the community do a GoFundMe and we get likkle from the Government, too. But still, it rough." Stewart is calling for a special loan facility that's tailored for people like him.

"Just provide funds, so we have no need to cut red tape. If you get a loan and hurricane mash up your things, refinance it, extend the time, give you a chance to get back pon you foot," he said. He argued that even students can now get loans without collateral, so why not fishermen?

"Boat and engine is security, too. Nobody wants people from the bank looking for them. Nobody is running and hiding again. Everybody has pride." He also urged the Government to regulate how hotels source seafood.

"Make dem guarantee to tek a percentage from the local fishermen. The Government give hoteliers too much power. Dem walk over we. Level the playing field so everybody get a fair pitch at the ball," he said.

Despite the challenges, Stewart said he wasn't bitter, but is just ready for meaningful change.

"No handout doesn't really work. People will pay for what they purchase. Just give them the opportunity that they can live, because I know it can be done." For this hurricane season, he is pleading with homeowners to be prepared, especially those living in vulnerable housing.

"If you know hurricane a come and you inna one zinc house, come out. Save you papers, you documents," he said. "Some a dem still say nothing nah come because them watch natural signs. But even the last hurricane show seh the sea don't play. Beryl mash up my rock dem down a Pedro Bank. Nothing nuh out deh now."

Unable to quantify how much money he has lost in the trade, Stewart remains resilient.

"We don't have the fish to supply Jamaica on a whole, but we can do it if the Government put it on us that we have to do it. All they have to do is provide funds, you nuh have to cut no red tape to get a bigger boat to go far and stay at sea longer."