More than seeking, therefore, to overcome the protracted, nagging problem of a fishing dispute between Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago, Prime Minister Owen Arthur's administration has come up with a draft proposal for the development of a Regional Fisheries Policy.

The `fisheries paper’, with some ten specific recommendations, was submitted to the 14th Inter-Sessional Meeting of CARICOM heads of government that concluded in Port-of-Spain yesterday.

The meeting was requested to mandate the Georgetown-based Community Secretariat to undertake "necessary research" for a common policy on "exploitation and conservation of fisheries resources" based on, among other factors:

*Establishment of a single maritime authority to manage the resources, cooperate in research and provide technical support for ongoing fisheries projects in the region;

*Operation in the identified "fishery zone" to be done under license

*Research should establish an "allowable yearly sustainable catch" with catches and landings thereof being recorded;

*Make fishing operation without a license "illegal and punishable";

*And having in place effective security procedures for reporting by fishing vessels to Coast Guard, Customs and Immigration services when entering and leaving national jurisdictions.

The Community Secretariat would be expected to report on the findings of its research for the shaping of a regional fisheries policy in time for the forthcoming 24th annual regular CARICOM Summit in July in Jamaica.

The Barbados position paper draws on a range of relevant sources, among them the Western Atlantic Fisheries Commission (1976-1981), the common fisheries policy of the European Union that has been in place since 1971;

And, also, the agreement that resulted in 1985 in the creation of the Fisheries Unit of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) which was subsequently amalgamated in 1996 with the St. Lucia-based OECS Natural Resources Management Unit (NMRU).

The Port-of-Spain meeting of heads of government was also reminded of preparations that are underway for the establishment of a CARICOM Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM), agreement for which was signed in February last year during the 13th Inter-Sessional Meeting of Community leaders in Belize.

Signing the agreement were Barbados, Belize, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago

This CRFM agreement, scheduled to be formally launched next month in Belize, has among its objectives the efficient management and sustainable development of marine and other aquatic resources within the jurisdictions of member states of the Community.

The `Barbados paper’ further draws attention to the undesirable situation that, in contravention of basic rules governing the Caribbean Single Market and Economy in formation, third countries are given "more favourable treatment" to exploit exclusive economic zone of Community states than member countries.

It also emphasised the importance of the fisheries sector to the economies of CARICOM countries, with fisheries resources providing livelihood and sustenance to the region by contributing to food security, employment, foreign exchange earnings and the development of rural and coastal communities, recreation and tourism.

Both the Prime Ministers of Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago, who had a private meeting in Barbados last month on the outstanding fishing dispute between their two countries, are said to agree that the development of a project on a regional fisheries policy was "an idea worthy of support in principle".

To further reinforce this agreement in principle, the Barbados fisheries project paper pointed to a position articulated by the President of Guyana, Bharrat Jagdeo, the previous CARICOM chairman.

Jagdeo had highlighted, as "an issue for priority consideration", the creation of multilateral regimes to support the concept of the Caribbean Sea as a "Special Area for Sustainable Development" and, in this context, the development of a common fisheries regime that would allow for rational exploitation and adequate management and conservation of fisheries resources.