TT wins fishing dispute

The tribunal in a lengthy judgement struck down the Barbados claim that even without a bi-lateral agreement Trinidad and Tobago should be ordered to allow their fisherfolk to fish in TT waters.

The tribunal said it had no jurisdiction to make such an order and what Barbados could do was negotiate some agreement with Trinidad and Tobago that would “accord fisherfolk of Barbados access to fisheries within the Exclusive Economic Zone of Trinidad and Tobago.

The tribunal made the point that “it was the right and duty of Trinidad and Tobago to conserve and manage the living resources of waters within its jurisdiction.”

In other words, the former Attorney General of Barbados, Mia Mottley would be foolhardy to tell her country’s fisherfolk “go fish” as she did in 2004, even as Bajan fishermen were being arrested by our Coast Guard for fishing illegally in our waters.

Barbados now has to negotiate with us in the same way we negotiated with Venezuela in 1990 and developed a treaty which allowed our fishermen to fish in Venezuelan waters. Before that treaty was agreed our fishermen were regularly arrested by the Venezuelan Guardia Nacional and one man was killed.

This dispute with Barbados had its genesis in 1979, when Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados signed a Memorandum of Understanding covering hydro-carbon exploration and fishing. In November 1990 there was a fishing agreement allowing Bajans to fish in our waters.

However between 2002/2003 negotiations for a bi-lateral agreement on maritime boundaries and fisheries ended without resolution and it was agreed in November 2003 to hold further talks in February 2004. In that same month of February 2004 two Bajan fishermen were arrested off Tobago and Barbados in a fit of pique responded immediately by taking the matter to arbitration.

Yesterday in Bridgetown, Ms Mottley in a rather unusual response, claimed victory for Barbados in the matter. As far as we are concerned her statement was nothing more than a transparent attempt at damage control seeing that she was the one who took the issue to the maritime arbitration instead of negotiating with Trinidad and Tobago for access to our fishing grounds. This after all, is the internationally accepted procedure.

Clearly Ms Mottley was angered at the arrest of two of her countrymen in 2004 who had been fishing in our waters off Tobago, a reaction we in Trinidad and Tobago can well understand from our history with the Venezuelans.

In an effort to calm troubled waters and in the interest of Caricom relations, Trinidad and Tobago had in February 2004 gone so far as to drop the charges against the two fishermen. But that failed to appease the Government of Barbadian prime minister Owen Arthur and triggered the appeal to arbitration.

The end result is that Barbados regardless of how it reads yesterday’s judgement, must now face the fact that it must negotiate with us if peace and goodwill are to prevail in both our waters. Barbados must understand that in the light of yesterday’s judgement there can be no question of “go fish” without talking to and getting our agreement first.