An­gry fish­er­men op­er­at­ing out of Car­li Bay, Cou­va, staged protest­ed ac­tion yes­ter­day de­mand­ing Gov­ern­ment re­in­state the sale of reg­u­lar gaso­line at a sub­sidised price.

Vice pres­i­dent of the Car­li Bay Fish­ing As­so­ci­a­tion Im­ti­az Khan said since the sup­ply of reg­u­lar gas was cut, fish­er­men are now find­ing it dif­fi­cult to make an hon­est liv­ing.

Khan said the cost of us­ing su­per gaso­line has in­creased their op­er­at­ing cost by as much as 50 to 100 per cent in some in­stances.

He said a con­tain­er that held $220 worth of reg­u­lar gaso­line mixed with two-stroke en­gine oil now costs $440. Khan said fish­er­men are find­ing hard times. He said if fish­er­men catch 200 pounds of fish and earn five dol­lars a pound they earn on­ly $1000 and have to pay oth­er op­er­a­tional costs leav­ing them with just $100 in hand.

Khan said with un­em­ploy­ment on the rise there are now sev­er­al per­sons look­ing to get in­to the fish­ing in­dus­try.

Al­lan Seep­er­sad, coun­cil­lor for the area on the Cou­va Tabaquite Tal­paro Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion, said the fam­i­lies of the 100- plus fish­er­men, who op­er­ate out of Car­li Bay, are suf­fer­ing hard times.

He said with school set to open on Mon­day sev­er­al fam­i­lies may not have enough mon­ey to send their chil­dren to school. Seep­er­sad said the Gov­ern­ment can im­port reg­u­lar gas in bulk, store it and sell it to fish­er­men or come up with an­oth­er scheme to get sub­sidised gas to fish­er­folk

Pres­i­dent of the Cou­va Point Lisas Cham­ber of Com­merce Ram­c­hand Ra­jbal Maraj was al­so at the protest.

He said a fur­ther re­duc­tion in av­enues of em­ploy­ment would lead to more and more peo­ple turn­ing to crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty as a way out.

Maraj said the fish­ing in­dus­try may be on the brink of col­lapse. He said this may re­sult in the im­por­ta­tion of fish lead­ing to fur­ther de­ple­tion of for­eign ex­change.

Cou­va South MP Rudranath In­dars­ingh said the in­dus­tri­al cli­mate in T&T is not good. He said 2018 end­ed with chaos and an­ar­chy with the clo­sure of Petrotrin. He said, “Fish­er­men are up in the air be­cause their op­er­at­ing cost has risen, it has dou­bled and in some in­stances tripled. All they can in­di­cate there will be ris­ing un­em­ploy­ment in the fish­ing in­dus­try.”

In­dars­ingh al­so warned the trade union move­ment to keep an eye on state-fund­ed in­sti­tu­tions that may lay off em­ploy­ees.