VENDOR Esther Beckles (centre) was swarmed by people with open plastic bags for her flying fish at $30 per 100. (picture by Charles Grant)

by TRACY MOORE

FISH! FISH! Catch them at a lower dollar!

That was the scene early yesterday morning when 100 flying fish were selling at $20 at the Bridgetown Fisheries Complex on Princess Alice Highway.

It only took a couple hours for the price to go up by five dollars to $25 and by mid-morning it continued to climb to $30 per 100 flying fish.

It took no time for all to be sold out.

By afternoon, when all the morning catch was gone, one lucky vendor was able to get her hands on more than 6 000 flying fish and sold them at $35 per 100, after buying them from the fisherman at $25 per 100.

But that cost was still lower than the price boat owners and vendors were wrangling over last Monday, when fishermen argued that they would increase the price of flying fish to vendors from $25 per 100 to $40, to compensate for the increased cost of diesel fuel.

The vendors, at the time, argued they would not pay more than $30 per 100.

Tyson Bourne, vendor, told the SUNDAY SUN it took him less than an hour to sell "a good couple thousand" flying fish at $25 per 100
yesterday morning.

"But I don't know how long I will be able to sell at that price because it will depend on the rest (of the vendors and fishermen) around here," he said.

Another vendor, Sharon Bellamy-Thompson, said she had no trouble selling her share at $30 per 100, while Esther Beckles, another vendor said, "I was selling the fish at $30 per 100 and they sold out real fast."

Ask fisherman

When asked how long she planned to keep it at that price, Beckles responded: "I don't know how long I can keep it at that price, you would have to ask the fishermen."

However, Stephen Callendar, a fisherman for more than 30 years said: "I don't know how long they can keep selling it at $20 or $30 per 100. Tomorrow another fisherman can come and sell them at another price because this cost of diesel is a serious thing."

Callendar estimated diesel fuel cost for his medium size fishing boat, travelling out to seas up to a distance of 200 miles was about $800 per trip.

That was before the diesel price hike.

"Now when I calculated my bill from my last trip, it was $1 517," he said.

Another fisherman Lester MacDonald said the cost of diesel for his small fishing boat had doubled with his last trip costing almost $1 600 travelling about 80 to 110 miles out.

Both fishermen said the only way something could be done was if there was some unity among the fisherfolk to dealing with the price of fish and the cost of diesel.

tracymoore@nationnews.com