Fishermen and Friends of the Sea (FFOS) say the origin and purpose of the overturned vessel in Tobago must be identified quickly.
In a media release on February 13, FFOS said the country remains in the dark about the situation, almost a week since the vessel was found leaking an oily substance 200m off the coast of the Cove Eco-Industrial and Business Park.
FFOS said, "According to the Tobago Emergency Management Agency (TEMA), booms have been successfully deployed in the vicinity of the leaking Gulfstream vessel, but isn't more oil still leaking from the vessel?
"It's critical at this stage that we determine how much more oil will be leaked to determine if the booms will contain it."
FFOS speculated that the substance being leaked into the ocean could be crude oil and warned about the devastating impact on the environment and people's livelihoods.
"The thick oil-like substance observed appears to be an unrefined crude oil, suggesting that the Gulfstream is either a tanker or a floating storage and offloading vessel...
"Based on this Gulfstream length, which is estimated to be between 300 to 560 feet, and to be conservative, if it was half-filled, we estimate that it could contain between 150,000 to 350,000 barrels of crude oil."
FFOS said the name of the vessel and its measurement will help identify its owner.
"Worldwide, there are many Gulfstream-named vessels. Most are of different lengths and uses. If the TT investigating team measures the length and width of the vessel, this would be the first step to identifying the model of this vessel and/or confirming whether it’s a freight vessel or a tanker and would narrow down an International Maritime Organisation search of the possible owner/s.
"Secondly, and much easier, since this vessel sails under a St Kitts and Nevis flag of convenience, why haven't our team already contacted the St Kitts and Nevis authorities to reveal the owner's names and all details of the capacity and use of this vessel? Certainly, they should have records of what this Gulfstream is equipped to do. Or do they? And if not, why not?"
FFOS also called for more skimmers to be used in the clean-up operations.
"According to the 2014 National Oil Spill Contingency Plan (NOSCP), Petrotrin owned three vacuum skimmers and five other types of skimmers. Where are these skimmers today? BpTT has three rope skimmers, and BHP has three skimmers. Why haven’t these skimmers been immediately deployed? Now the oil is spreading northwest!"
A release by TEMA on Monday noted that the oil slick measures 48 nautical miles (approximately 88km) in length and 0.13 nautical miles (approximately 248m) in width.
"The spill extends from the west to the northwest into the Caribbean Sea, with noticeable oil weathering beginning around 9.71 nautical miles (approximately 18km) from the source," TEMA said.
FFOS said the vessel drifting undetected into TT's marine space is an indictment on our border patrols and needs to be addressed.
"Does it mean that any vessel can enter our border and carry any substance… undetected?" it asked.
After one family temporarily relocated... Lambeau residents want answers on oil spill
Residents of Lambeau who live close to the coast are calling for the investigation into last week's oil spill to be concluded and the area cleaned and restored to normalcy as soon as possible.
The spill emanated from a mystery vessel that was found overturned in the sea some 200 metres off the coast of the Cove Eco-Industrial Park around 7.20 am.
Clean-up operations have been ongoing, with central government getting involved, the expertise of private companies utilised, environmental stakeholders brought in, and volunteers recruited.
Booms have been used to contain the oil spill and keep operations at the Scarborough Port unaffected.
Newsday visited Lambeau on Monday and unlike a few days ago, the odour of the spill was not evident.
One resident who spoke anonymously said the scent had subsided by then.
"On Wednesday when the incident had just happened, you couldn’t even stay in the area – the stench was horrible."
She said she was visited by her area representative, Wane Clarke.
"By Thursday, Friday, we didn’t have it so bad as compared to then, but it’s understandable based on what Mr Clarke told us. I really hope that they get to the bottom of this soon."
Another resident, who gave his name only as Hiram, said he was aware of the incident on Wednesday when he came home from work and asked about the stench.
He said he had numerous questions about the incident.
"Whose boat, how long was it here; so many questions yet so little responses – definitely a mystery."
A resident who only wanted to be identified as Phyllis said: "We just want an end to this issue. We’ve listened to both the chief secretary and the Prime Minister on the issue and we’re really glad that they could have come together on this, but we as residents – we just want an end."
Clarke told Newsday that one family was temporarily relocated.
Secretary of Health, Wellness and Social Protection Dr Faith BYisrael urged the residents to be cautious.
"They should stay away from the site, wear a mask when in close proximity, and keep their windows and doors closed – if necessary. If they feel dizzy, nauseated or generally unwell... they should seek medical attention."
She added: "The fact is that we have to get to identify exactly what the substance is, therefore, we encourage folks to be cautious – not fearful but cautious."
At a news conference with the Chief Secretary last Saturday, the Prime Minister said they are waiting on the results of the sample to determine the content of the spilt cargo.
So far, he said, the authorities have not been able to determine if the oil-like substance leaking from the vessel is bunker fuel, fuel for preparation of the vessel or raw crude.
Dr Rowley said the identity of the vessel remains a mystery.
But he added that the central government will have to provide the THA with whatever support it needs. (Source: Newsday,  Feb 13, 2024)

THE masterminds of international organised crime syndicates are targeting Trinidad and Tobago, the Prime Minister revealed on February 2. However, law enforcement agencies from the United States are prepared to help this country fight these criminals.
Dr Rowley spoke at a media briefing at Whitehall, Port of Spain, after his return the night before from the US where he met with top officials from national security agencies including the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Rowley said he travelled with Energy Minister Stuart Young, Foreign and Caricom Affairs Minister Dr Amery Browne and Digital Transformation Minister Hassel Bacchus, and they met officials including Vice President Kamala Harris, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Assistant Secretary of Defense Melissa Dalton.
"We also met with officials of the FBI. We do have some problems here in Trinidad and Tobago which I will not burden you with today. We do have some internal problems."
Touting the TT-US relationship, he said, "The resources of the FBI and CIA were made available to us to deal with our own internal problems."
"We met with officials of the Department of Homeland Security who gave us a listening ear with respect to what we might need to assist in certain matters."
Rowley also met top officials of the US State Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy and attended a workshop on cybersecurity and cybercrimes at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.
He said artificial intelligence (AI) can make it hard for leaders to know what is true and what is not, as he quipped it can now pass the Bar exam plus doctors' exams.
"Given the positives of the technology, there are a whole lot of negatives we now have to confront, and so we spent the morning on that and it was a great eye-opener."
The PM said local law enforcement officers were strengthening their capabilities via US-funded security co-operation initiatives. Again, he did not go into specifics.
These programmes will help with policing strategies for crime-fighting and citizen security. They also help to create specialised and vetted units against organised crime.
"Because we are now attracting elements of international organised crime, which is very concerning to the Government, we are discussing this with the US to get as much help as we can, in ensuring that our bad (crime) situation is not worsened by these developments."
Rowley named three more areas of TT-US collaboration.
"We have made plans, and the US has agreed to help us, with increased maritime operations. So we will be working on that in the coming weeks to see what we can get out of that."
He said a gun crimes intelligence unit was a priority area of collaboration between Trinidad and Tobago and the US.
"We intend to establish a cybersecurity bilateral technical working group which will offer institutional technical exchanges and digital transformation support for our people here in Trinidad and Tobago working closely with their (US) colleagues."
A statement on the White House website, recounting the Rowley-Harris meeting, referred to "key priorities, including regional security issues and the imperative of addressing firearms trafficking." Rowley said he had met a congressman who was piloting a bill to curb firearms trafficking which the PM said affects places like Trinidad and Tobago.
Rowley also told reporters on February 2 that he had not had a vacation or an annual medical check-up, but would do so just after an upcoming energy conference and Caricom leaders meeting – both being held in Guyana. He said after the Guyana engagements, he would be away for ten days. "I will be here in spirit."
Less than six months ago, on August 17 to 22, the PM flew off to Barbados for vacation, following the holding of local government elections.
In the question session, he was pressed about the interest of international criminals in Trinidad and Tobago.
He replied that Trinidad and Tobago was an open country, such as in its trade links. "Certain criminals are liking us and I say no more. I say no more." (Source: Newsday, Feb 2, 2024)

​Due credit to Dhaneshar Maharaj who is author of the following blog
TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE
LANDMARK IN SAN FERNANDO.
ALLOY SHOP
The photo depicts a site on SUTTON STREET, with FREELING STREET to the east (left) and IRVING STREET to the west (right). The building seen in the “THEN” photo was what we called “ALLOY SHOP”, a business operated by a Chinese proprietor from the 1940s to the early 1970s. Grocery items were sold on the left side while the right side had a parlour where you could buy something to eat and drink and there was even a small wooden table to sit at by the window and look outside at the occasional vehicle passing or admire the greenery in Irving Park, looking northwards. My favourite meal bought at Alloy’s shop was a six cents loaf filled with butter and cheese (oily and a bit rancid at times) and a Nestlé chocolate milk in a glass returnable bottle, to wash down the bread and cheese. When funds were a little scarce, I would settle for a plain bun or coconut drops and a banana SOLO. Food items were kept in a glass case on top of which sat a cat or two and these would have to be chased away from the glass case when Alloy’s wife was making a sandwich or selling drops, buns, biscuit cake or bellyful cake. The cats were probably kept in order to keep away the mice which roamed the shop and parlour in the night and nested amidst the many spaces and holes in the old, warped wooden floor of the shop.
This was the closest shop to where we lived and I remember being sent very often when my mother was cooking, to buy a pack of curry (a penny a pack) or a pound of salt (cent a pound) and probably buying a cent Paradise Plum (three for a cent) or a ‘sours’ with part of the change. It would take me just about thirty seconds to run uphill from my house to Alloy shop to get these items. Children never walked in those days when going on errands. We would run at top speed since we had no shoes or slippers to wear at home and would try to minimize the time the soles of our feet came into contact with the hot asphalt as we went barefooted about our errands. We would fall occasionally when running and grate away parts of the skin on our arms and legs, but we were healthy kids and these bruises and scrapes soon healed without the aid of medication, not even leaving scars on our skins.
When Alloy died, his family ran the business for a while but then it was sold to an East Indian man who had a blue Opel motor car and who operated a garage in the back. This new owner kept the place enclosed day and night so no one was able to see inside the premises, except when he was reversing his car out of the garage on to Irving Street and would open the galvanize gate to do so. Once I saw a woman sitting in a hammock, while the gates were open, and I would hear the occasional crying of little children coming from the enclosed premises as I passed by. Little or no renovation was done to this building for the many years in which this garage man lived here.
The right side of the photo shows how the spot looks now. The photo was taken early on the morning of January 19, 2014. After the old wooden building was demolished, the spot stood vacant for some time. There was a short mango tree on the compound and grasses and weeds occupied the ground area. I am not sure, but I heard that the owner of Affan’s Bakery bought this spot along with the spot opposite on which the old TICFA building where WASA’s office was once located, and which has since been demolished. The mango tree has been cut down and the area fenced around some time last year and the ground paved over with oil sand. A doubles vendor now operates here out of a new truck, the tray of which has been modified to provide a mini kitchen for cooking bara, aloo pies, saheena and pholourie on the spot. (Just a passing observation. I have seen many doubles vendors with several vehicles, all of them fairly new and not of the cheap run of the mill type. Which tends to signify that a well-run doubles business can move one fairly high up the economic ladder). This doubles vendor sells from Tuesday to Sunday, taking a rest on Mondays. The business was run by a father-daughter combination, the father doing the bagging and money collection while the daughter was part of a team of cooks preparing the items for sale. I have not seen the father in recent times and the daughter has now taken over the father’s former role of bagging and cashing, though today, when I took this photo, there was a strange gentleman cashing and bagging stuff for customers.
I first discovered this doubles team on a vacant car park lot opposite the SSL main building lower down on Sutton Street, i.e., at Gomez Street corner. They operated here for a long while until CHRIS BHAGWAT, the owner of SSL did some improvement on the empty lot and began to use it as a car park for his business and to store lots of iron and pipe stuff. Chris himself would patronize this vendor on a regular basis, especially on Sundays and despite his regular diet of oil, flour and other starchy stuff has remained quite lean, not an ounce of fat showing on his slender frame.
This doubles business changed location to the pavement of the old, abandoned TICFA building (part of which is seen in the “THEN” photo) next to Affan’s Bakery, just opposite to where they are located today. I taught the owner of Affan’s Bakery (he is the son-in-law of the original founder and owner of Affan’s Bakery, so he is not an Affan, but is married to Affan’s daughter) while I was a young teacher at Naparima College, and I taught his son when I was a much older teacher at Presentation College. I would meet this bakery owner (forgot his name now) on Sunday mornings patronizing this doubles vendor who operated right next to his bakery. I discovered on one such Sunday, that he would buy a Sunday breakfast of doubles for his entire staff of Bakery workers and himself, probably giving this vendor the biggest sale for the day. During the spate of kidnappings plaguing the country about ten years ago, the bakery owner feared for his family’s safety and took his children out of school and along with his wife, sent them to live in Vancouver, Canada, where they now reside. After the old TICFA building was demolished last year the doubles vendor moved over the road to the former Alloy Shop site and has remained there to the present time.
Items worth noting in this picture are the wrapper and money collector having to stand on a bench to be at a high enough level to function properly, a green plastic chair for lazy customers to sit on and eat in the shade cast by the truck, two coolers for supplying drinks to patrons eating on the spot, a garbage bin for the exceptional customer who knows how to use it or just feels like not littering on certain occasions, a water container some distance away to the east for washing hands, a fat customer wearing a number 8 jersey to indicate that he regularly consumes 8 doubles at a time and a number of pigeons which walk around to feed on any tidbits or morsels coming their way, sometimes from sloppy eaters who allow channa to fall out of their doubles or even let a whole doubles slip out of their greasy hands.
And as I end let me remind you that the primary purpose of education is not to teach you to earn your doubles, saheena, pholourie and kurma, but to make every mouthful sweeter. (Source: Angelo Bissessarsingh's virtual museum of Trinidad and Tobago, Jan 10, 2024)