A FORMER president of the Barbados National Union of Fisherfolk Organisation (BARNUFO) is optimistic that a fishing agreement between Barbados and Trinidad can be fleshed out in less than a year.

Angela Watson, a member of Barbados' negotiating team, said yesterday that the time-frame might seem long, but it really was not.

"We've been at this for years. I think we can get it done before that. We agreed at the end of July that we would give ourselves some time to look at the stock assessment which is something that was brought up by Tobago, because they were worried about depletion.

"We've agreed to work with them for the stock assessment which cannot be done as a one-off thing. What we have been doing with the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation) is pulling records for the last couple of years, not just for Barbados but all flying fishing countries," she said in a telephone interview.

On the issue of Barbadian fishermen heading to the twin-island state, she said that no one had been detained recently and added that BARNUFO has "been stressing to them that we are still in negotiations and they should not go into Tobago so we're hoping that they're listening to us".

Watson also said flying fish were migratory and if the fishermen were willing to go "up in the sea" they would find them.

She added that some of the flying fish that were tagged in Barbados' waters were found off Brazil.

Watson said that CARICOM Ambassador- designate Denis Kellman, who has lead role in the discussions, was aware of the situation.

And she reported that flying fish catches so far for the season hadbeen "fairly good" and that fishermen now were complaining of the dolphin catches.

"I think they are still comparing the dolphin catches to last year's catches which was bountiful so you just can't decide that because they say it is less that is actually less.

Last year was an extraordinary year so we'll have to wait until we get monthly catch rates to see if there is an increase or a decrease," Watson said.