“Our thing is not about making revenue through fines, we hope that people would be compliant,” Premier Fahie said during a recent joint press conference with marine industry officials.

The Premier’s statement came following blowback received from a government crackdown on non-compliance in the charter yacht industry.

The Moorings and Sunsail were among several charter yacht companies fined hundreds of thousands of dollars in addition to having their vessels detained last week for non-compliance with maritime regulations.

“Our focus is to make sure that all the private sector continues to blossom so that they can hire persons so that more and more persons can be employed and we don’t have anyone in the unemployment line; so that more and more families can be able to better prepare and also be able to handle themselves economically and otherwise. That’s the aim of any government,” the Premier added.

“So the fines, they are part of the law. Those are things, when something doesn’t happen — whether it’s a parking ticket or whatever — you issue them,” he explained.

The territory’s leader argued, though, that fines are not the area governments generally prefer to make their revenue from.

“It is not a knock against the law enforcement agencies because that is part of their job and it is part of the law but if you’re asking me about the monies, I’ll prefer it to be [coming from] somewhere else,” he stated.