Barbados is to buy a specialised research vessel this year to pave the way for a formal fishing agreement with Trinidad and Tobago, Minister of Foreign Affairs Kerrie Symmonds has revealed.
The development was announced as he gave an update on the status of bilateral efforts to conclude the long-awaited fishing accord with Port-of-Spain.
Symmonds said funds have been allocated in the 2024-2025 Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure to lease the boat which is needed to conduct a comprehensive study of the sub-region’s fishing stock.
“We are at a stage where a number of countries in the Eastern Caribbean are looking at each other, because, to do the study, you have to have the appropriate technology. It’s a special type vessel that has to be procured,” he told Barbados TODAY in an exclusive interview.
“Barbados has put into the Estimates this year, money which will go toward obtaining such a vessel. But we also feel this is something that is going to benefit the whole Eastern Caribbean so it should not only be Barbados doing it.”
However, the foreign minister insisted that the study must be completed.
He explained that in the “assessment of the pelagic stock of everything that moves in the sea…you want to be able to understand what you have, the different species and types and so on, and that lays the foundation to do things that we still need to do”.
“For example, the engagement with Trinidad and Tobago. So, until we know what we have out there, generally in the eastern Caribbean, then you are not in a position to have a plan as to how you manage the resource, and go about harvesting the resource, without over-exploiting the resource.”
Symmonds reported that that is the reason there has been little progress on a new fishing contract with Trinidad and Tobago.
“The key problem has been procurement of the vessel…. We have to determine how we go about getting that vessel. It may well be that you can source one [a boat] by way of a rental because I do not know that we need to buy one. We don’t need to do this over and over again. We just need to do the study over a period of time.
“So, it may make more sense to procure it by way of a long-term lease or something like that; and I think that is really where the first stop is,” he explained.
He said since there are not a lot of these types of boats around the world, it would be necessary to identify one that is available for lease for the period of the study.
The minister recalled that Barbados and Trinidad had discussions that concluded in November last year and agreed that the study was required.
He highlighted that in the meantime, fishermen from both countries have been urged to avoid any conflict in plying their trade in the waters of Tobago and beyond.
“All that we are doing in the interim period, on both sides, is asking the fishing communities to be mindful, that you don’t want to aggravate the very delicate balance in the circumstances, and that dialogue has begun, it is ongoing, and that the work that needs to be done in order to conclude the assessment is now being financed,” Symmonds said.
He added that as soon as the funding for the vessel is approved by the end of the current Estimates, “we would be on our way toward the sourcing of the vessel”.
Symmonds also explained that financing of the vessel may come from the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM) as well, to which a $100 000 subscription has been budgeted in the Estimates. The CRFM is tasked with, among other things, the promotion of the sustainable use of the region’s fisheries and other marine resources.
Last year’s talks were convened in fulfilment of the mandate issued to the fisheries technocrats of both countries by Prime Minister Mia Mottley and her Trinidad and Tobago counterpart Dr Keith Rowley, following media reports of concerns expressed by some Tobagonian fisherfolk regarding possible overfishing of the shared flying fish stock.
emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb
