Plenty more flying fish in the sea? Tobago's fears as Bajan boats move in [View all]

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/jan/09/caribbean-fishing-dispute-trinidad-tobago-barbados-flying-fish-sustainability

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.

A heavily set black man cleans fish on a dockside
Andel Daniel cleans his catch at Buccoo. ‘Our fishing practices in Tobago are sustainable and don’t kill the fishing grounds,’ he says. Photograph: Clement Williams
“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.