Fishermen from southwestern Trinidad are challenging claims by environmental activist group Fishermen and Friends of the Sea (FFOS) that fish from the Gulf of Paria have been poisoned by oil spilt over the past three years.
In a statement issued yesterday, Cedros Fisher Folk United questioned the validity of a test labelled Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons (TPH) conducted by FFOS on fish samples collected last month, when a large quantity of dead fish washed ashore along the coast in La Brea.
During a press conference on Thursday, the FFOS presented the results of the its tests from the Caribbean Industrial Research Institute (Cariri) which showed that samples collected on July 25 had contained between 334.99 and 2680.73 microgrammes of TPH per kilogramme of fish tested. The European Union’s recommended limit of TPH in fish is 0.002 microgrammes of TPH per kilogramme, which means that the concentration of the toxins in the fish was more than a million times above the allowable limit.
The group questioned the FFOS’ ability to single out its results of fish caught La Brea from those caught in other points along the southwestern peninsula.
“If the samples were taken from a specific location, subjected to certain circumstances, how can one universalise the problems of a specific area to all areas?” the release asked. The group also challenged the FFOS’ claims that the high levels of TPH were responsible for increases in people suffering from cancer in communities in that region.
“How can one jump from possible fish contamination to a cancer spike in the south? Are cancer victims consumers of fish? What about other factors such as health styles, fast foods consumption; stress related factors; air pollution, et cetera – air toxicity must be extremely high in an area with at least three neighbouring industrial estates spewing its polluted waste – into the sea and throughout the air; and an area with poor health facilities,” the release said.
They contended that the publicity of the issue would seriously affect their livelihoods as consumers would refuse to buy their fish.
Extreme levels of poison
In a telephone interview yesterday, FFOS secretary Gary Aboud rejected the criticism being leveled at his organisation.
“If the fish were three and four times the European benchmark we might have a less alarming approach but it is 1.4 million times. That is staggering. We wish we were wrong. We are just the messenger not the culprits,” Aboud said.
“We are not in any argument with the fisherfolk.
“We have 20 years of service and the last thing we would ever want to do is taint or destroy the livelihoods of the people we have fought long to defend,” he said.
Aboud said it was almost impossible to say that fish caught in non-contaminated water did not pass and feed in contaminated zones due to fish migration patterns.
“This is serious situation. How do we know that the Salmon coming through the Gulf of Paria is not swimming unto the south or north coasts. The fish are swimming in patterns unknown to us. If a fish is swimming through the contaminants and it swims down to a different area and they catch it, there is an equally injurious situation,” Aboud said.
While the group from Cedros and the FFOS disagreed with the testing, both were in agreement that State-owned oil company Petrotrin — which was responsible for the oil leak in La Brea almost three years ago and more recent incidents of a smaller scale — should be held accountable.
Environmental Management Agency (EMA) chairman Nadra Nathai-Gyan said that her organisation’s TPH tests on fish collected around the same time as the FFOS, were yet to be completed by Cariri.
Nathai-Gyan said the results would be made available on Monday. Last month, the EMA dismissed allegations from the FFOS which claimed that the fish washing ashore was caused by the chemical Corexit- a dispersant used to contain and clean up oil spills in 2013.
The EMA had said that its tests showed that the fish did not have parasites and had no traces of Corexit. It ruled that its preliminary investigations showed that the fish was dumped by trawlers operating in the Gulf of Paria.