SOME FISHERFOLK are keen to go into Tobago and fish while others are still apprehensive after a tribunal ruled on the territorial dispute between Barbados and Trinidad.

Announcement of the ruling was made on Tuesday by Deputy Prime Minister Mia Mottley, after the Arbitral Tribunal in the Hague ruled on the issue to determine that Trinidad's property did not start 40 miles off Oistins.

However, the two countries are still to meet and negotiate and Prime Minister Arthur said this country would move with urgency to do so.

Boat owner Tony Mason, who is also a past president/member of the Barbados Fishing Co-operative Society, said he still was no clearer as to whether or not he could fish in the exclusive economic zone of Trinidad and Tobago than he was before the matter went to arbitration.

"In order for the fishermen to fish in the economic zone of Trinidad and Tobago, we would have to do this on the basis of the outcome of any meeting which Barbados is having with Trinidad, based on the conservation methods they are going to carry out. We are back at square one," he said.

Mason said the Law of the Sea Convention which governed island states was what he would be dealing with because even when the two countries sit at the table, Trinidad was still within its rights to say what the best places are within its waters for Barbadian fishermen to drop their nets.

He advised fishermen not to go there and think that all was safe but wait for the negotiations between the two countries to provide clarity on the situation.

However, Alfred Stanford who does iceboat fishing believes the decision will lift the fears of being caught and imprisoned off the shoulders of many fishermen.

He thinks the coast guard will no longer be hovering over them and as long as they stay within their boundaries all should be well.

He said he was happy that the Government negotiated a position.

Another fisherman, Dave Mason, said he was very comfortable with the arrangement brokered on their behalf.

"Before you used to be taking risks, looking for the coast guard, looking for this, looking for the next thing, but now you got the okay, you feel more comfortable," he said.

wendyburke@nationnews.com