Those speedy Venezuelan fishermen?

Thursday blog

Much howling and outrage from the usual Trump-haters as US planes blow up alleged Venezuelan drug-smugglers’ boats. The Trump administration is accused of having no evidence that the boats were smuggling drugs and so the US forces were supposedly ‘guilty’ of attacking innocent Venezuelan fishermen.

I’m no expert on fishing boats. But I am a qualified day skipper and have sailed in the Channel, the Mediterranean, Florida and off Malaysia. I did a little research and Professor Google told me: “Trawlers fish at slow speeds, typically 3 to 6 knots (3.5–7 mph), with large beam trawlers often towing near 6 knots and others around 3.5–4 knots, depending on gear, seabed, and target species. Cruising speeds to and from fishing grounds are much faster 7–10 knots or more.” I’m not saying that Venezuelan fishermen use trawling as their method for catching fish. I’m merely looking at the kind of speeds a fishing boat might use.

I suspect the boats the US planes are sinking all have 2 or 3 massive (and expensive – well out of the financial reach of any Venezuelan fishermen) outboard motors attached and are rocketing along at 30 to 40 knots or more. I can assure you that you’re not going to catch many fish going at that speed. In fact, most fish would struggle to keep up with these boats. So, it’s rather reasonable to assume these are not fishing boats crewed by innocent impoverished Venezuelan fishermen.

But, of course, the Trump-haters will use any excuse to attack him as he is determined to protect the Western values and Western civilisation Europe’s and Britain’s ruling, bureaucratic, academic and media ‘elites’ so despise and are so determined to destroy.