With the official end of Carnival, Roman Catholics marked the beginning of the Lenten season yesterday, Ash Wednesday. For some fish vendors it was a slow start to sales as they complained yesterday of few customers. Fish is a traditional Lenten staple. King and carite were priced at $40 a pound while red fish was sold for between $30 and $35 a pound.
Cavalli sold between $15 and $18 a pound. At the Cocorite Fish Depot, fishmonger for the past ten years, Desmond Ryan, said the slow sales could have been attributed to people visiting the various beaches as is customary on Ash Wednesday.
“So people may not really be thinking of stopping to buy fish now. What you would see is tourists coming and buying fish to take with them before they go abroad,” Ryan added. He was optimistic, however, that at by the end of the week sales would pick up.
“Although the sales start off slow we would see it increasing especially as Lent come in full swing,” Ryan said.
Fish prices have been generally the same since November 2010, again because of the scarcity of fish due to rough waters. But for fishermen, a day’s catch was sometimes a difficult chore.
One fisherman said over the years he had to go out further into the sea to get a decent amount of fish but that meant more gas to be used.
“It difficult out there. Is more gas to go further which is more money and then there is the weather which is a challenge by itself,” he added.