Gareth Davis, Sunday Gleaner Writer

Just outside Port Antonio, a row is brewing between fishermen who use Bryan's Bay Beach to ply their trade and the management of the Shan Shy Beach.

The fishermen are arguing that the developer of Shan Shy Beach, Roderick Dawkins, who leased a section of the property from the Jamaica Railway Corporation, is trying to restrict their use of the beach.

The beach, which has been used by the community for fishing for more than 40 years, now has a wall dividing the property in two, with the Shan Shy Beach on the west, and the fishing beach on the east.

Fishermen believe the wall was built to curtail their activities.

"That wall will cost $5,000 and he will pay $5 million jus, to make the wall," one fisherman commented.

Reason for wall

According to caretaker of the Shan Shy Beach, Donovan Tracy, the wall was put there to keep the fishermen from disrupting the activity of bathers, claiming visitors were often disturbed by the men's playing of sports on the beach. He claims the wall was sanctioned by the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) and the local parish council.

"It was measured and the parish council and NEPA came. It has gone through the process," Tracy told The Sunday Gleaner.

But Ainsley Henry, director of coastal zone management at NEPA, says the agency has not given a permit to build the wall, adding that the developers were only given a licence for the beach.