Fish prices skyrocketed on the first day of Lent, yesterday, with carite jumping from $30 to $45 per pound. The cheapest fish available were mixed varieties, including butterfish, blackfish and branch, which were selling for $4 a pound, while sardines were priced at three pounds for $25.At Otaheite Bay, where only a small number of customers could be seen buying fish for their Ash Wednesday meals, Cindy Boodoo said she did not understand why fish prices always increased during Lent.
"Once again the prices are ridiculous. We plan to eat fish for Lent but we have decided to catch our own fish in Cedros," Boodoo said. Her seven-year-old son Christopher and husband Roger Boodoo eventually bought small shrimp at $15 per pound to do their own fishing.Fisherman Mitra Balchan said it was customary for fish prices to go up for Lent because of increased demand and limited supply. He said big shrimp were selling for $45 per pound.
"If the fish not biting we have to raise the price," he explained. At Otaheite Bay, as well as the King's Wharf fish market in San Fernando, customers were few. Vendors Paul Young and Andre Matas said since the oil spills along the south western peninsula in December 2013, sales have dwindled.
"Many of the vendors stopped coming to sell because nobody come here to say it was safe to fish," Young said. He added that most of the fishes are caught along Trinidad's northern and eastern coasts."Fish prices will be terrible this year," said president of the Claxton Bay Fishing Association Kishore Boodram. "We have high winds and the waters are polluted heavily and it would not be until the rainy season that this will change."
Boodram, who complained about the high cost of gasoline, bait, fishing tackles and boat engines, added: "A boat engine burns four or five times more gas than a car. We have expenses and nobody is looking at improving our sector."He explained that the price of fish is heavily influenced by supply and demand during the Lenten period.