Prevailing weather conditions have dealt the fishing industry a serious blow, with some fishermen at Oistins, Christ Church, saying the catch this Easter was slow.
Very few fishermen were at the Berinda Cox Fish Market yesterday, but Ramon Taoun, who plies his trade from Oistins, said some of them were taking multiple trips to catch fish, hoping to get something, but returning with nothing.
Previously, the most popular catches were king fish and dolphin with an average of ten to 15 usually caught, but during this period they were little to none.
He highlighted a number of factors that contributed significantly to the fish scarcity, including high winds, high currents and a lack of FADs (Fish Aggregating Devices) used to attract fish.
“We had six and seven FADs the Fisheries Division put down in a ten-mile range and anchored to the ground, in 1 500 feet of water to attract smaller fish for the bigger fish to come and hang around,” Taoun explained yesterday.
“When we had last year and a year before, we had three up this side and two up in the east. It was easy to run to those and get fish every day, but now we don’t have any, and with the sea moss, it’s difficult to find stuff for us as day boats.”
Taoun said he and other fisherfolk had to pool together funds to purchase their own FADs as the issue was not addressed by the Fisheries Division, but he hoped Government would soon place more.
High currents were another challenge which he said occurred around Easter time, when the tide changed, causing the fish to move along with it.
“This time of the year the tide is going in the opposite direction. Normally we want falling or a southwest tide that brings fish across the Atlantic, up and north, South America, coming in this direction. When we got a short tide going northeast, fish don’t come from down there,” he said.
He described fishing in these conditions as a great risk because at times some fishermen would be out for hours and return with nothing.
“Sometimes, you’re out there all day; you don’t find anything. You’ve got to try and trap out, and see if you can get four or five barracudas to sell to get back your gas. It’s going to go on all week, and you’re out $1 000, and you don’t get anything yet.”
Taoun said times like these called for patience.
On average, a trip costs him $150 to $220. If he did not score any fish during that trip, he would have to wait until the next catch to make up for the money lost.
Keeping up with the technological age, he said some fishermen utilised an app called Windy which helped in tracking weather and sea conditions, allowing them to move in the right direction to score a catch. However, this would pose a greater challenge for the older fisherfolk who were not as tech savvy.
The fisherman said the tradition of buying fish during Easter was still occurring, but not like previously.
“The traditions are still prevalent, but I don’t see it as plentiful where people are really buying a lot of fish like before. Easter is popular among the older folks; the younger generation don’t traditionally come in and buy fish,” he added.
Another fisherman who was there agreed with his comments. (AJ)
