Fishers warn of energy impact as fishing accord talks stall

Key figures in the fisheries industry in Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago are pushing for an urgent settlement to the long-mooted fishing agreement between the two countries, Barbados TODAY can reveal exclusively. 

President of the Black Fin Fleet Co-operative Society (BFFCS), Moonesh Dharampaul, said on Tuesday that efforts are underway to have government authorities return to the negotiating table without further delay.

Dharampaul said: “We are pushing to see if the powers that be would sit down again and have a chat. But, we haven’t gotten anything at all, since the last time. 

“What is interesting as well is that, in Guyana right now, because of the oil boom, the fishing industry there has taken a real hit. In Trinidad, they had an agreement between the fishermen and the oil producers. Those fellows weren’t worried if the boats came close up to their rigs. But in Guyana, it is a whole different situation. The type of drilling they are doing, they just scaring the fish. The fishing industry down there is bad. They have to import a lot of frozen fish out of Jamaica and Venezuela.”

That situation is of concern to the fishing organisation.

“And we are worried about that too, because, if that comes here…you know the prime minister says she is looking for oil exploration. So, we are worried about those things.”

But the fisherfolk representative explained that it is a matter that can be resolved:

“It is how the agreement would be put together. Some oil producers really work with the fishermen. They really do…because those become natural FAD [fish aggregating device which attracts fish].”

President of the All Tobago Fisherfolk Association (ATFFA), Curtis Douglas, told Barbados TODAY in a telephone interview from Scarborough that his organisation is also preparing to hold discussions with the government there as it renews efforts to revive fishing talks under a new administration.

“I don’t know how the discussions [among governments] going because everything went to a halt. So, I believe by September some sort of discussion may take place. We can collaborate together.”

Douglas said his organisation will be going all out to work with the Kamla Persad-Bissessar administration for the good of its members and, by extension, to ensure there is a regional solution to the sharing of fishing stock.

“The All Tobago Fisherfolk is always about the growth and development of the fishing industry because, you know this industry is a multi-billion-dollar industry. So, if we can capitalise on it, we can come to some form of consensus between the Caribbean, where we can share that space and develop the Caribbean, and be self-sufficient in terms of the food industry,.”

Douglas is of the view that such a deal would be one of the greatest goals the region could achieve by working together instead of “separate” individuals. “That is the goal we are trying to achieve,” he said.

In an update in March 2024 on the status of bilateral efforts to conclude the long-awaited fishing accord with Port of Spain, then foreign minister Kerrie Symmonds announced that Barbados was to obtain a specialised research vessel that year to pave the way for a formal fishing agreement.

Symmonds said funds had been allocated in the 2024–2025 Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure to lease the vessel, 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 back then.

“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.”

But the former foreign minister had 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”.

He continued: “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.”

At the time, Symmonds said this was the reason there had been little progress on a new fishing agreement 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.”

Since there are not many of these types of vessels around the world, it would be necessary to identify one that is available for lease for the period of the study, he said.

The senior minister had recalled that Barbados and Trinidad had discussions that concluded in November 2023 and agreed that the study was required.

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Chris Sinckler was not immediately available for comment.

(EJ)