Andel Daniel has been fishing in Trinidad and Tobago’s territorial waters for more than 30 years. During that time, he has seen a significant drop in the number of flying fish within his patch of the Caribbean Sea.
Cleaning his catch on the quayside of Buccoo after an early morning fishing trip, he blames the shortage on fishing boats from Barbados and Venezuela moving into Tobago’s waters.
“What one Bajan boat can carry, it would take 10 Tobago boats to carry,” says Daniel, using the Caribbean term for Barbadians as he warns of what he considers their unsustainable practices.
“Barbadian fishers freeze their catch while at sea and return to Barbados only when they are full,” he says, referring to the flying fish season from November to July. “Our fishing practices in Tobago are sustainable and don’t kill the fishing grounds.”
Complaints from Daniel and others like him are increasingly frequent in Trinidad and Tobago and have fuelled a dispute that has persisted for more than 50 years. In the 1970s, the two countries began negotiating agreements on oil and gas exploitation and their respective territorial waters and exclusive economic zones (EEZ), which extend farther.
In 1982, both became signatories to the United Nations convention on the law of the sea. However, tensions between Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago over fishing areas persisted until the parties signed a Fishing Agreement in 1990
This limited the number of boats authorised to fish in Tobago’s territorial waters, and set a maximum number of trips in any fishing season and a fee for each boat. However, Barbados then refused to renew the agreement after its first year as it did not align with its interests.
In the 2000s, the problems over fishing between the two countries intensified when the migratory patterns of flying fish began to change – possibly due to the climate crisis raising water temperatures, according to researchers.
The shoals of flying fish, which used to be abundant in the seas around Barbados, began to move hundreds of miles southwards, entering Tobago’s waters.
As they have long made a living from flying fish, Barbadian boats began to follow the shoals, encroaching on Tobago’s sovereignty and clashing with locals who were after the same catch.
As flying fish are also typically used to catch larger pelagic species – such as king mackerel, marlin and tuna – the drop in the number of flying fish resulted in fewer of the larger, more lucrative species being landed, which also affected the earnings of Tobago’s fishing communities.
The dispute was brought before the court of arbitration in The Hague in 2004, which rejected the Barbados government’s argument that it should have access to Trinidad and Tobago’s waters as its boats had always fished off Tobago and limited Barbadians’ rights there.
But the problem has not gone away. Since November, it has been discussed between the authorities and representatives of fishing associations from the two countries after the All Tobago Fisherfolk Association (ATFA) protested at what it saw as an increase in Barbadian fishing in Tobago’s waters.
Farley Augustine, the chief secretary of the Tobago House of Assembly, or
head of the island’s government, describes the decades-long standoff over fishing as a family feud that could escalate if not resolved.
“Teeth and tongue will clash because they are relatives living in the same house,” says Augustine, using a Caribbean metaphor. “That’s a natural part of the dynamic. It just happens because we’re a family.”
As well as the question of Tobago’s sovereignty over its territorial waters, the issue also involves the sustainability of fishing in the Caribbean.
Fisheries officials from the two countries met in November to discuss the problem and have put together a proposal to collect data in an effort to find out why the flying fish population has fallen.
The study was agreed by Barbados’s prime minister, Mia Mottley, and Trinidad and Tobago’s prime minister, Keith Rowley, after a meeting of the Caribbean Community, the regional single-market bloc, at which Tobago’s fishers voiced their concerns over Barbadians’ fishing practices.
At the Caricom meeting, ATFA expressed its willingness to “share” the flying fish with their Barbadian counterparts, Augustine says, as long as it is “done responsibly”.
“Fishing is not a free-for-all, and so Bajan fishers must come in a responsible manner to fish,” he says.
ATFA is an umbrella organisation representing eight fishing groups in Tobago. It has about 1,000 members, according to its president, Curtis Douglas, including part- and full-time fishers, vendors, small-scale processors and others along the value chain.
The comparative size of the fishing enterprises in Tobago and Barbados is adding to the dispute. Whereas Tobago fishers use small boats known as pirogues and fish for a day, the Barbadian vessels in Tobago’s waters – known as “ice boats” – are bigger, capable of going farther out to sea and remaining there for much longer as they can preserve the catch.
ATFA’s vice-president, Junior Quashie, says Tobago’s fishers are not against Bajans operating in Tobago’s EEZ. “We talk, they assist us, we assist them,” he says, referring to emergencies at sea and meetings onshore when they socialise. However, he insists that their methods “are not sustainable”.
“After a heavy flock of Bajans, we cannot fish as we would like because their boats are larger, and they fish night and day while we only fish in the day. In night fishing, the light attracts all of the flying fish [to their boats],” Quashie says.
He says the Bajans tend to use 10-12 metre (30-40ft) hanging nets, whereas Tobago fishers rely on handheld lines, adding that they typically work in pairs and often return to the harbour by early afternoon, having gone to sea at dawn.
“We do not know what is the percentage of fish that is landed in Barbados,” Quashie says. “We need to know the data, and it is donkey’s years that we have been asking.”
Augustine says the new study will help to clarify whether the perceived decline in flying fish populations is due to overfishing or the climate crisis. The oil and gas industry, which is key to Trinidad and Tobago’s economy, has also been considered as a possible cause.
The Guardian approached Barbadian officials and the Barbados National Union of Fisherfolk Organisation but got no response to requests for an interview. Shelly-Ann Cox, the chief fisheries officer for Barbados, also declined to comment.
The decline in flying fish populations also hurts downstream businesses, says Douglas. Fast-food outlets such as KFC and Royal Castle, a Trinidad and Tobago-based chain, no longer carry it on their menus because of its uncertain supply, resulting in hardship for some processors.
Sandy Roopchand, managing director of Royal Castle, says the chain’s flying-fish sandwich was discontinued in 2005 as supplies could not be guaranteed.
Augustine argues that freedom of movement for all Caricom nationals, established under the 1973 Treaty of Chaguaramas, does not mean Barbados’s fishers can exploit Tobago’s waters.
While the treaty gives Caricom nationals the freedom to work in one another’s countries, it does not mean “exploiting each other’s resources”, Augustine argues.
“If it did, that would mean Barbados could start drilling for oil in Trinidad, and Trinidadian farmers could go to Guyana and work their land,” he says.
The Tobagonian leader hopes an agreement can be reached, based on the recently announced study, that will allow Barbadians to fish under licence, as it was in 1990.
"fish" - Google News
January 09, 2024 at 07:00PM
https://ift.tt/OMA5wsG
Plenty more flying fish in the sea? Tobago’s fears as Bajan boats move in - The Guardian
"fish" - Google News
https://ift.tt/MGCL28R
https://ift.tt/x8EuSnh
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Plenty more flying fish in the sea? Tobago’s fears as Bajan boats move in - The Guardian"
Post a Comment