The Tobago Marine Parks Bill 2026 was passed yesterday during a special sitting at the Assembly Chamber of the Tobago House of Assembly in Scarborough.
It was passed on the day Angelica Saydee Jogie would have celebrated her eighth birthday.
Angelica died on April 8 when a jet ski crashed into her and her family at the Pigeon Point beach in Tobago.
Died in jet ski accident: Angelica Saydee Jogie
Her mother, Salisha Jogie, has called for a ban on jet skis in Tobago.
THA Chief Secretary Farley Augustine piloted the Tobago Marine Parks Bill at the Assembly Chamber yesterday.
According to the bill, under the Inspectors and Enforcement provisions, a person who assaults, obstructs, resists or interferes with an inspector in the execution of his duty, or any person who aids or incites another person to assault, obstruct, resist or interfere with an inspector in the execution of his duty, or who declines to facilitate an inspector, commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine of $100,000 and imprisonment for a term of 12 months. An inspector is described as a police officer, Coast Guard officer, etc.
“You know what is interesting? (Yesterday’s) date, the 23rd of April, would have been the young lady’s eighth birthday, so we are actually sitting on a day when this child and her parents should have been celebrating her eighth birthday. You should have been celebrating.
“In fact, this was their pre-birthday celebration because school was going to occur during the birthday. They offered the children to go other places in the world and the children wanted to go Tobago because Tobago, to them, represented fun, joy, peace, love, beauty unmatched,” Augustine stated.
“And unfortunately what was supposed to be a heavenly experience has turned out to be hellish for a family—but not only them.
“I recalled earlier in the debate the others who died in the past by drowning, got injured through jet skis, the use of other craft—things that we just have to regulate; that we have to treat with.”
The bill focuses on establishing a legislative framework for the protection, management and sustainable use of Tobago’s marine parks, and safeguarding biodiversity while supporting future generations.
Augustine said in about three weeks, the bill should make its way to Parliament.
“Yes, this bill is similar to the previous bill under the PNM, but your own PNM people refuse to handle it and I want to advise this House that after consultation with the Attorney General and the Prime Minister, I was given the undertaking that once this is passed and sent down to the Parliament, that in the space of two to three weeks this bill would make its way into the Parliament and would be addressed by the national Parliament…,” he said.
Augustine raised concerns about TTPS enforcement at Buccoo Reef Marine Park, as he said a week after the jet ski incident, operators were observed in area reserved for bathers.
“It would appear the TTPS refuses to engage those who are trespassing and it is at this juncture I want to say that anybody wish to sue the THA over any incident there, my instructions to our lawyers when they go to court is to ask that they sue the Attorney General and the Central Government, because you cannot tell me that we are culpable; we must pay when things go awry.
“We set the policies in place, we install, this time we continue to publish and advertise and inform and educate the public, and yet we are asked to do so with our hands tied behind our back without any ability to even get the police to even come and cast an eye over the operations,” he said.
Augustine also criticised former prime minister Dr Keith Rowley for the Marine Parks Bill languishing under the previous PNM government.
“I heard the former prime minister talk about banning all jet skis in the area, yet the 2020 bill went to his Cabinet, a PNM THA sent it to a PNM government in 2020, and he wait until he is political persona non grata, when nobody cares about his political opinion, and he has absolutely no authority about talking about banning jet skis in the space when he knows very well that the THA can’t just ban it; we ban it on paper, we ban it in policy, we implemented the policy, but he knows that lawmaking is the ultimate requirement for the enforcement of policy,” Augustine stated.
