Plenty of fish, but no buyers - Rocky Point fisherfolk not seeing sales

The Lenten season is in high gear, but the fish vendors in Rocky Point, Clarendon, are not seeing the sales that they were hoping for.

When THE STAR ventured into the community, some of the vendors were seen scaling the fishes that they bought.

They said that they have the catch but the sales are not reflecting the season.

Loretta Bryan, who has been a fish vendor for more than 50 years and who now owns her own business, said that they have seen better days and she hopes that the sales will increase soon.

“I am 65 years old and a from me a 17 mi a sell. Is the only work mi do. Mi raise mi nine children and grandchildren from it. Mi nuh clean and sell again, mi get old yah now, a collect time; mi a manage yah now. Mi just hope things start pick up as the season continues,” she said.

REFRIGERATORS FILLED

Another business owner, Verona Coleman, who has been in the business for roughly 30 years, said that she has multiple refrigerators with fish that are not being sold.

She said that her alternative is to fry them.

“Sales are not all that good because the people dem nuh have no money. All a mi fridge dem here have in fish and from dem come in with this parrot (ban) thing, people not buying. So mi affi fry them and sell them and mi lose when mi do that. It nah work out. Maybe later in the month things get better,” she said.

Meanwhile, fishermen said that the weather has not been favourable to them, because of the heavy winds.

Dwayne Small, who has been in this profession for eight years, said that he has not been out to sea for the past month because of the wind.

He said that this is causing a setback, but there is nothing they can do but wait it out.

“Fi bout one week straight, no fishing cyaa gwaan because of the wind. It rough man, because when the weather bad, you cyaa go out deh,” he said.

Another fisherman said that “majority of these times fish sell faster, but when the time windy, wi nah shub out or dem thing deh. Is about a month now mi nuh go sea, but the waters all right fi now.”