 Minister for Agriculture Hon. Alfred Prosper says moves are afoot to increase opportunities and benefits for the stakeholders in the fisheries industry. Miguel Morissette has the details. On Tuesday the 28th of September, the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Rural Development, Hon. Alfred Prosper said that the fisheries sector is one which remains on his priority list. Hon. Alfred, a former chief forestry officer, said fisheries plays an essential role in providing food and livelihood for thousands. Minister Prosper is currently exploring compensational and beneficial avenues for fishers. The fishing exercise is a very risky business. Sometimes most times we hear our fishers go out and see, they are lost and see, the engines, the boats sink because of bad weather conditions, but there is nothing to compensate, very little to compensate in terms of loss of life and so on. And I'm really concerned about some form of insurance for our fishers. When our life is lost at sea, the family members can benefit. When a fisherman decides that at age 65 or 60, I cannot afford to continue going to see. It should be some form of health insurance, insurance coverage for them, just like the NIC will do to the regular workers. The Minister added that the removal of $1.50 excise tax on fishers is only the beginning of future plans to alleviate some of the challenges confronting fishers. Insurance coverage is one of the areas that I'm giving high priority in terms of how we assist our fishermen. The government of St. Lucia in its manifesto indicated that the $1.50 excise fuel tax will be removed, so that will be an ease for our fishermen because that will be able to give them some latitude in terms of benefiting by reducing or removing the $1.50 tax on gas and fuel for the fishermen. It's really a very, very, very important sector, but it's also a sector with lots of challenges and it's one of the sectors that I will be giving a lot of attention in terms of attempting to address most, if not all of the challenges that the government faces. Reporting from the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Rural Development, I am Miguel Morissette.