The Mayor of Fogo Island says there is a lot of confusion as to what constitutes essential travel during the marine captain’s strike.

Five routes are on a reduced schedule with some down to only one run a day.

Mayor Wayne Collins says there are separate lines for essential travel but people are confused.

He says a lot of people have an issue with the criteria of what is considered essential travel. Collins says people don’t know what it is and there is no one at the ferries monitoring the situation and tell the traveling public where to go and what’s determined to be essential travel.

Mayor Collins says there should have been a mechanism in place so the situation could have been avoided.

He says while he understands workers have the right to strike under their agreement, individuals have been calling Collins asking why this is happening now and you’d think the captains would have more compassion considering all the other barriers that COVID-19 has caused.