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Sascha Wil­son

Fish prices have climbed this Lenten sea­son, but in­stead of an in­crease in sales, fish­er­folk in south Trinidad say busi­ness has slowed dras­ti­cal­ly, adding to months of fi­nan­cial strug­gles. This mir­rors re­cent lo­cal re­ports that high prices and scarce catch­es are slow­ing Lenten fish sales at mar­kets such as San Fer­nan­do and Ota­heite Bay. Some ven­dors said cus­tomers are few and sales have been poor for weeks.

Guardian Me­dia spoke with fish­er­folk and ven­dors in Ota­heite, San Fer­nan­do and Clax­ton Bay, who out­lined sev­er­al rea­sons for the slow­down and for the steep price in­creas­es, which in some cas­es have dou­bled com­pared with past sea­sons.