AN­GE­LO JE­DIDI­AH

an­ge­lo.je­didi­ah@guardian.co.tt

The All-To­ba­go Fish­er­folk As­so­ci­a­tion (AF­TA) is call­ing for a by-elec­tion, as they claim to be ig­nored by the Gov­ern­ment of T&T.

Last month, AF­TA said they wrote to PM Dr Kei­th Row­ley urg­ing him to deal with the prob­lem of fish­er­men from Bar­ba­dos over­fish­ing in To­ba­go’s wa­ters.

Speak­ing at a press con­fer­ence at the Buc­coo Jet­ty, in Buc­coo, To­ba­go, AF­TA pres­i­dent Cur­tis Dou­glas said there has been no re­sponse from any gov­ern­ment of­fi­cial, in­clud­ing To­ba­go East MP Ayan­na Web­ster-Roy and To­ba­go West MP Sham­fa Cud­joe.

“If they don’t want to speak or rep­re­sent the peo­ple that put them in the of­fice to rep­re­sent them, call the by-elec­tion and call it now,” Dou­glas said.

“We are call­ing up­on you (Row­ley) to use your wis­dom and en­sure that a by-elec­tion is called and put peo­ple in place to treat with the Ba­jan is­sue that is plagu­ing the peo­ple of To­ba­go.”

Some fish proces­sors claimed that fly­ing fish are rarely seen and that red fly­ing fish can no longer be sourced in To­ba­go’s wa­ters.

“When the fish­er­men go out when the day comes, they not bring­ing back noth­ing. No catch. And who re­ward­ing the fish­er­man when they ain’t bring in noth­ing. Next day they have no mon­ey to go, so we have to do some­thing about it,” said lo­cal fish proces­sor Leslie Ann Davis.

AF­TA mem­bers al­so said they are fear­ful of il­le­gal trad­ing/ac­tiv­i­ty oc­cur­ring in To­ba­go’s wa­ters, claim­ing that there are no coast guards sta­tioned near­by to of­fer pro­tec­tion.

“If any­thing should hap­pen, we have to get a Coast Guard per­mis­sion be­fore they could ap­pre­hend or save any­body. All the po­lice ve­hi­cle that they have is in Trinidad park up, so To­ba­go does not mat­ter nor the fish­er­folks’ con­cerns,” Dou­glas added.

Dou­glas al­so re­vealed that a let­ter was sent to the op­po­si­tion, but claims that more than a month lat­er, the is­sue has not yet been raised in par­lia­ment, adding to their be­lief that To­ba­go is not a pri­or­i­ty.

AF­TA an­nounced plans to meet with THA chief sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine lat­er this week but urged PM Row­ley to act be­fore greater ac­tion is tak­en by To­ba­go fish­er­men.

“If mis­ter Prime Min­is­ter, you are un­able to do any­thing for To­ba­go, you can give To­ba­go their au­ton­o­my so that To­ba­go will get prop­er rep­re­sen­ta­tion for the peo­ple,” Dou­glas said.