RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

With sev­er­al fish­er­men go­ing out of busi­ness in San Fer­nan­do, San Fer­nan­do Fish­ing Co­op­er­a­tive pres­i­dent Sal­im Gool is call­ing for an is­land-wide fish­ing strike in the hope that this will force the Gov­ern­ment to re­duce gas prices for fish­er­folk.

If Gool’s call is suc­cess­ful, this could mean no fresh fish in any fish­ing de­pot or mar­ket­place across the coun­try.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, Gool said so far, their calls have fall­en on deaf ears.

“With­out this sub­sidy, we can­not sur­vive,” Gool said.

Since the price of gas went up on April 19, there have been protests at fish­ing vil­lages and ports, in­clud­ing Guayagua­yare, Bonasse, Fuller­ton, Clax­ton Bay, Car­li Bay, Or­ange Val­ley, King’s Wharf and Moru­ga. 

Gool said they no longer have ac­cess to the cheap reg­u­lar gas, adding it now costs be­tween $1,200 to $1,500 to go on one fish­ing trip.

Gool said: “We do not think the Gov­ern­ment is tak­ing us se­ri­ous­ly. Since April 22, we called for a meet­ing with the Min­is­ter of Agri­cul­ture Land and Fish­eries and he has not re­spond­ed. We are now call­ing for a strike of fish­ing is­land­wide.”

He added: “All fish­er­men have to get to­geth­er to get that done. The price of gas is re­al­ly too high for fish­er­men. Here in the Gulf of Paria, when a boat run for one hour and 15 min­utes, it burns 70 litres of gas. In the dry sea­son, we have to work two times the amount of gas—140 litres of gas, that cost­ing more than $1,000.”

Gool said be­cause of the high costs of fish­ing, gill­net fish­er­men were no longer ven­tur­ing out to catch prime fish like carite, king­fish, an­cho and pom­pano.

“There is an in­crease in fish­ing boats do­ing cut­lass fish­ing. Every­one is in­vest­ing in that be­cause catch­ing the cut­lass­fish is eas­i­er and near­er to the shore,” Gool added.

He ex­plained that the un­em­ploy­ment rate was ris­ing and fish­er­men had no oth­er choice but to “sit down home.”

“Peo­ple can­not go fish­ing at night ei­ther be­cause pi­rates will hold you up. There are things that could have been done to make it eas­i­er for us. The price of gas didn’t have to go so high and reg­u­lar gas didn’t have to go off the mar­ket. Too many things hap­pen­ing. No pro­tec­tion for us,” Gool said.

An­oth­er fish­er­man, Wayne Rus­sel, said he may have to leave the fish­ing busi­ness. 

“It is just not fea­si­ble to fish from here any­more. You could spend $1,200 on gas and then go out and hit a blank, no fish or just enough fish to buy back ten litres of gas. That not right,” Rus­sel said.

He ex­plained that al­though the Coast Guard is sup­posed to do pa­trols all around the is­land dai­ly, this is not hap­pen­ing. 

“We should not even have pira­cy in the Gulf be­cause we have a Coast Guard base in Ce­dros and Ch­aguara­mas. They say there is a po­lice unit pa­trolling the shal­lows but we don’t ever see them,” Rus­sel said.

Guardian Me­dia has been reach­ing out to En­er­gy Min­is­ter Stu­art Young for com­ment but there has been no re­sponse to calls and mes­sages. Min­is­ter of Agri­cul­ture Kaz­im Ho­sein al­so could not be reached for com­ment yes­ter­day.

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