Comments on Flying Fish

Flying Fish

Oft in childhood recollection

of the beach

many pleasurable moments

the mind did reach

roaming the shores

of Half-Moon Bay

naked bodies all splashed

with foaming spray

while on hillsides

donkeys brayed

So many wonders

of the Caribbean Sea

feet all wet

and silver sands

on the knee

as bleachers

and bathers

from far and near

chill-out

with their kith and kin

beneath

the trees of coconut

with water that is very clear

Fisher folks have come

to throw their nets

as agile as ever

with no regrets

to harvest,

these flying fish

Steaming

deliciously

floating in hot sauce 

this is Bajans' delight.

They hurled those nets

in frenzy array, so... 

the aerobatics

are on display in the air

and the flying fish battle rages

 

Callaloo plays the game

so... unfair!

Cou-cou on the stove top

dripping with okra strew...

Cou-cou done...

Stands on plate

waiting for flying fish

to land

while the wives of fishermen

young and old

are crying every Easter morn

not knowing

what next they must do

The war of words is too profound

For the gilded heads

so they seek the lustre 

of the ocean bed

in preparation

for...the eminent flight...

They quickly surface

the water

for viewers in sight

leaping like a frog in midair 

then down again

with valour

and power

These grasshoppers

of the sea now disappear...

Resurfaced again without dread...

Their pectoral fins outstretched

they soar like a jet

the down with the nosedive

Splash

and they are very wet... 

With submarine topography

on the ocean floor

a thousand feet below or more

such fervid flight incomplete

For now they sleep

in a tropical ocean

that is so very deep

Far... Away... 

from nets

and noise fishermen do keep

in a tropical ocean

that is so very deep

Far... Away... 

from nets

and noise fishermen do keep

This social commentary poem is written in Free Verse. It is about a fish that has not only broken the ostentatious flying record but has created Flying Fish War of words between two Caricom islands that broke out in 2003. This war is between the “Land of Flying Fish” and the “Land of the Humming Bird”. This fish is from the family of Exocoetidae abundant in tropical and subtropical areas of the Pacific and the Atlantic and Indian oceans. They feed primarily on zooplankton that consists of animals, including corals, rotifers, sea anemones and jellyfish. Zooplankton is primarily found in surface waters where food resources are abundant. The predators of the flying fish are the dolphin fishes, tunas, billfishes, cetaceans and the pelagic sea birds. This species of fish broke the established record of 42 seconds set by fish that can fly in 2008 off the Coast of Yakushima Island when it established a flying record of 48 seconds. However, flying fish don’t actually fly like birds, they glide, but they do have wings. These wings are large pectoral fins that allow them to soar above the water at fast speeds to escape from predators. Flying fish are small fish with the shape of a herring, and silvery-blue seen jumping in and out of the temperate waters of the Caribbean Sea, Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans.

Barbados is known as the “Land of Flying Fish” and Trinidad and Tobago is known as the “Land of the Humming Bird”. From the time Barbados became an inhabited island the flying fish was caught in nets by fisher folks in the waters of Barbados and this fish is a Barbadian delicacy. The flying fish is central to Barbadian culture. It’s featured on coins, stamps and menus where one have it baked, fried or steamed. It is purported that Barbadians taught the folks in Trinidad and Tobago the art of how to fillet flying fish in preparation for the dinner table and they in turn taught Barbadians how to prepare roti. The folks in Trinidad and Tobago never really appreciated this fish until their economy hit rock bottom when their oil-booming era collapsed in the early 1980’s. Their economy experienced negative growth of 26 per cent in 1983, 10.8 percent negative growth in 1984, negative 6.5 per cent in 1985, and negative 5.1 per cent in 1986; continued negative growth was estimated in 1987. This decline in their economy caused the Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister, George Chambers in 1983 to state unapologetically that “the fête is over”. I experienced this decline in their economy while a college student in Trinidad. Since that time I have been a regular visitor to the Twin island Republic and as a CXC Examiner during the period 1980- 2002.

When the oil prices collapsed the economy in Trinidad and Tobago, they sought to revitalize their agriculture and fishing they neglected during their oil-booming years. Trinidad and Tobago turned their appetite on flying fish. So in 2003 this Flying Fish War of Words broke out between the twin island Republic of Trinidad and Barbados. Minister R. Eastmond from Barbados had the compelling task to resolve the conflict with several meetings with officials in Trinidad and Tobago with intended purpose to bring back flying fish to Cou-cou land from the beds in Callaloo country. He left office in 2011 without being able to bring an end to this fishing conflict still simmering.

Now Prime Minister Freundel Stuart in 2013 tried to negotiate a proposal that would ensure flying fish return to Barbados their true lover. So during the 34th Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) in Port of Spain, Prime Minister Stuart stated “that we should have a protocol in place that sets out the steps to be followed to ensure that Trinidad and Tobago is not compromised and that Barbados is not compromised and that fishermen and their families are not destabilized as a result from actions that may from time to time have to be taken in Trinidad and Tobago; we have not had a Fishing Agreement since about 1990. We’ve done not too, too badly without it, but we have to remind ourselves; I think it is very often forgotten that the word agreement means not what one person wants, but what two or more people consent to”. Barbadians are hopefully optimistic that regional integration initiative will solve the Flying Fish War of Words.

All of that talk by the ousted Prime-mister means nothing now for in 2019 Barbadians are yet to be informed. Hopefully, this new Government headed by our First Lady Prime-minister of Barbados will in time inform the people of Barbados if amicable agreement on this debacle has been reached. This tug-of-war between fisher-folks in Tobago and fisher-folks in Barbados will no longer at the fore.