The incident took place in the waters off Mustique on Thursday, November 12.

The fisherman had left the capital of St. Vincent – Kingstown – early morning in their 24-foot wooden pirogue with a 75 horsepower Yamaha engine. They headed in a SE direction towards the offshore fishing grounds.

When they were approximately 46 miles off the mainland of St. Vincent (closest land mass being Mustique) the fisherman were approached by a blue pirogue, approximately 30 feet long with six powerful outboard engines. The ten men on board the piroque were all holding AK-47 assault rifles.

The fishermen reported that the armed men stopped their boat under gunpoint and demanded “life or money”. When told that they were just fishermen with no money, one of the armed men, who spoke English, is said to have asked the fishermen if they had rich relatives.

The fishermen were held from approximately 2pm until dark. Then the pirates stole the fishermen’s GPS, cell phones, food, water and money.

When the fishermen were eventually let go, it took them a few hours to get back to shore as they were 14 miles away from their original position. They fortunately had a compass on board, and on arrival in Calliaqua (at the southern tip of St. Vincent) went directly to the coast guard base to report the incident.

Following this threat, many fishermen are now aprehensive of venturing so far offshore to fish.

The kidnapping of fishermen by Venezuelan pirates is a major problem in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) where fishermen are snatched from the water and taken to Venezuela, following which money is demanded for their release. Pirates are known to ask for ransoms of up to US$200,000.

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See the Caribbean Safety and Security Net’s report on this incident here.

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Further Reading: 

• Read the full report by St. Vincent Searchlight here.
• Caribbean, Trinidad Hibiscus Oil Platform: Pirates fire shots at sailboat – April 2019
• Caribbean Safety and Security Net

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Noonsite has not independently verified this information.