The All To­ba­go Fish­er­folk As­so­ci­a­tion (AT­FA) is urg­ing the au­thor­i­ties to ad­dress the grow­ing pres­ence of Venezue­lans op­er­at­ing in To­ba­go’s ter­ri­to­r­i­al wa­ters.

AT­FA Pres­i­dent Cur­tis Dou­glas told Guardian Me­dia from his Scar­bor­ough of­fice on Wednes­day morn­ing that it re­mains un­clear what ac­tiv­i­ties the Venezue­lans are en­gaged in aboard the fish­ing ves­sels they op­er­ate. He said To­bag­o­ni­ans are al­ready bur­dened by the in­cur­sions of Ba­jan fish­er­men, who en­ter To­ba­go’s wa­ters to har­vest fly­ing fish.

Dou­glas said AT­FA has writ­ten to the Prime Min­is­ter re­gard­ing these con­cerns. “It’s not on­ly Ba­jans, but al­so Venezue­lans fish­ing in our wa­ters—pos­ing a threat to our safe­ty as To­bag­o­ni­ans in our own wa­ters, in our own house—by some of these il­le­gal op­er­a­tors or pi­rates who are ar­riv­ing on our shores in To­ba­go. The Ba­jans are en­croach­ing, and the Venezue­lans be­have as though there are no laws, no en­force­ment, and no Coast Guard pres­ence in our wa­ters,” he said.