Gareth Manning, Sunday Gleaner reporter

Garbage piled high on Pedro Cays. The problem of waste disposal is a looming health hazard for the people who live and work on the cays. - Photo by Gareth Manning

Though seemingly mundane, life is really quite extraordinary on the Pedro Cays.

The sound of dancehall DJ Mavado blaring from speakers, and men drinking and playing games in a nearby bar, are signals of the kind of life that really exists.

There are parties on these cays almost every night, the fishermen tell our news team. They are able to do this because the income from fish is far better than the income they can generate on the beaches of the mainland. One catch can fetch up $100,000, and men go to sea several times for the month.

But in one blow, all can be lost on 'Pleasure Cay', as this place is also called by its inhabitants.

"If you go down the road there, you see gambling a go on," a dreadlock fisherman directs us. "People a play bingo, people a play Three Card. Some man no work, some man no do no other work other than just gambling," he adds.

Prostitution thrives

Where there is plenty money and gambling, prostitution is sure to thrive, and it is thriving here. Some of the women, on the inhabited cays are 'business women' as they prefer to be called. Many of them come to the cays to work in bars as maids, but not being masters of the sea like their male companions, they sometimes get trapped. There are some who are forced into the business by their employers, fishermen tell us, having credited goods, finding themselves unable to make good on their debt, when their tenure is done. To pay off their debt, they either stay on and work until they have fully paid for the goods, or exchange sex for cash.

"You have some man that have dem woman and set up all a business and mek dem woman come all deal with it, like shop and bar and all them thing there," our source reveals. "You have some man again and dem woman just come cross and come stay with dem, and probably all further down the line, dem just end up leave all that man and go with different fisherman because is all about bribery, you know," he adds.

The men spend a great deal of money for the services of these women, with a night costing on average, $5,000. It is rumoured that one man spent as much as $70,000 for a night! But those high prices really only obtain during the conch season, when fishermen come from all over to go to the cays for conch.

That is the season Joanis waiting for to make some cash. Currently, business is not so good. She has had to settle for a mere $1,000 per client and $2,000 if he wants her to spend the night with him. She has been going back and forth from Rocky Point to the Pedro Cays for three months.

Opportunity

The mother of five first went to the cays with her friend after hearing about the money she could make. It is her only source of income.

Just outside her little zinc bunker, we meet Sophia, who has only been at the cays for three days. She came all the way from Spanish Town with a friend to do business. But so far, like Joan, it has been slow.

Prostitution is a functional part of society on the cays, the men say. Many of them have left their families, girlfriends and wives on the mainland to earn a living. At sea, they can be away for weeks, months and up to two years, without ever seeing their loved ones.

"You need somebody to come home to you, a come tired off the sea, so a man just buy a prostitute," says one of Joan's clients.

Name changed.

gareth.manning@gleanerjm.com