If the dispute was allowed to drag on it could have caused serious implications for the fishermen of the two nations and possible knock-on implications for the lucrative tourist income of the region. The Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague, The Netherlands. This raised the stakes of the dispute considerably with Barbadian fishermen becoming furious that direct action was being taken to stop their fishermen from catching flying fish. The fishermen were fined and had their catch confiscated. Tensions were raised when the Trinidad and Tobago coast guard arrested two Barbadian fishermen who had encroached into waters near Tobago to catch flying fish. It was also pointed out that Trinidad and Tobago was a relatively rich nation, being the Caribbean’s leading producer of oil and gas, and therefore could not justify catching this species on an economic basis.

However, Barbadian fishermen hit back, claiming that flying fish were not important to the people of Trinidad and Tobago on either a cultural or economic basis and that the fishermen of Trinidad and Tobago were opportunistically catching this species simply to sell back to the Barbadians. “The stocks in Barbados waters have been grievously depleted, and we didn’t want a large number of vessels from the Barbados fleet, the largest in the region, descending on our waters.” Gerald Thompson, a legal officer at the Foreign Ministry of Trinidad and Tobago stated: The Barbadian fishermen argued that flying fish were so important to both their livelihoods and culture that they had the right to fish for them wherever they were, while the Trinidad and Tobago fishermen stated that the boundaries of their fisheries must be respected and the Barbadian fishermen had no right to fish within Trinidad and Tobago’s waters. Trouble flared when flying fish changed their migratory pattern and began to move southwards, out of Barbados waters and into the waters of Trinidad and Tobago.

With most of their small-scale fishing industry based around catching flying fish Barbadian fishermen had no choice other than to follow the flying fish into the territorial waters of Trinidad and Tobago, sparking the dispute. Trouble started in the early 2000s when flying fish began to change their migratory patterns, meaning that they were becoming less common in Barbadian waters and increasingly moving several hundred miles southwards towards the nation of Trinidad and Tobago, possibly due to global warming or other aspects of climate change. Flying fish are therefore important to Barbados not just economically in terms of employment and fishing jobs, but hold deep cultural significance to the nation. Barbados often refers to itself in tourist literature as ‘The Land of the Flying Fish,’ cou-cou and flying fish is a traditional Barbadian recipe which is the nation’s national dish and a flying fish features on the Barbadian one-dollar coin. Flying fish feature on the Barbados dollar coin.īarbadians have fished for this species for several hundred years, meaning that the flying fish is not only highly commercially important but has also become intertwined with the island’s history and culture. This ability is thought to be an adaptation to escape predators which include tuna, marlin, billfish, sharks, killer whales and dolphins. They can remain airborne for around thirty seconds and reach heights of five to six metres and cover distances of up to fifty metres before returning to the water. Flying fish fly (or at least glide) by building up speed just below the water’s surface and then jumping out and using their adapted pectoral fins to travel through the air.

All are silvery in appearance and look somewhat similar to herrings with the addition of the large pectoral fins which act as wings. Indeed, there are over sixty species of flying fish worldwide, with all living in tropical and sub-tropical waters around the equator. Flying fish are found in the tropical waters of the Caribbean.įlying fish are not a single species of fish. As flying fish are important to both the economy and culture of Barbados this led to a significant disagreement between the nations which required the intervention of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague, Netherlands to resolve.

It was sparked by the changing migratory patterns of flying fish which saw this species move away from Barbados and into the waters of Trinidad and Tobago. The Flying Fish Dispute was a conflict between the Caribbean nations of Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago.