FISHERFOLK are threatening to take their protests to the Chief Secretary’s doorstep at his official residence on Calder Hall Road, Scarborough, if their pleas for compensation for the February 7, 2024 oil spill are ignored.

The oil spill stained approximately 15 km of Tobago's south-western coastline after the Gulfstream barge overturned in waters off Cove. Over 400,000 gallons of oil spilled into the ocean, affecting the livelihoods of fisherfolk.

At a media conference at Turtle Beach on February 17, All Tobago Fisherfolk Association (ATFA) president Curtis Douglas said Augustine must stop "acting mean" to fishermen.

He said, "There are points in time where you have to put aside politics.

"You are dealing with people's lives. What people vote for you for? What you tell people they independent for?"

Douglas urged Augustine to contact him to resolve the matter.

"You are the one managing Tobago's affairs...Do not be dictator, and keep to your word.

"Why are you being a beast? Why are you being so mean with the people of Tobago? No one hates you here."

He told Newsday the fisherfolk would be taking their protests to Augustine's "bedroom, he workplace, wherever."

Lambeau fisherman Jason Rampersad vented his frustration at the media conference, saying he wanted an update on compensation.

Alluding to the one-time grant given to about 100 fisherfolk in 2024, Rampersad said, "Can $1,000 mind a man for 12 months?

"I loss my two engines, I can't even put my boat on the water after 12 months.

"I speaking for everyone affected in Lambeau and in town (Scarborough). We patience are very, very thin, and he (Augustine) needs to give us an answer by Friday about what's going on."

In an interview on Tobago Updates on February 12, Secretary of Finance Petal-Ann Roberts said the THA worked alongside officials from the International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund (IOPC). She said only twenty-something of the 167 claims made by fisherfolk were approved, amounting to $4.2 million in compensation – a far cry from the $47 million requested.

[caption id="attachment_1108902" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Chief Secretary Farley Augustine at the opening of the Manta Lodge Hotel and Dive Centre in Speyside on September 16. - Photo by Visual Styles[/caption]

She said the THA has decided to allow the IOPC to process the claims and make the payment.

In the interim, Augustine announced last month that the THA will be giving $2 million in relief to affected fisherfolk. Roberts said a process to determine the disbursement of that $2 million is being formalised.

However, fishermen are disgruntled.

Rampersad said, "We going home by he, because he is we leader. We looking up to he to help sort we out, and is just a disappointment."

He said Tobagonians had believed in Augustine and voted him into office in the THA elections.

"This country has been going through disappointment, one after the next for 60-something years.

"When Farley come into power, the whole of Tobago look up to Farley. He say he will do goo