SASCHA WIL­SON

South Oropouche fish­er­men and fish ven­dors protest­ed over the loss of earn­ings on Thurs­day as they called on the au­thor­i­ties to come clean on whether fish and shrimp from the Gulf of Paria were con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed by hy­dro­car­bons.

This comes three weeks af­ter an aban­doned oil well rup­tured in the Gulf of Paria leak­ing oil and gas in­to the sea off Or­ange Val­ley, Cara­pichaima.

Protest­ing at the Ota­heite Fish­ing Bay in South Oropouche, the fish­er­men and ven­dors com­plained that the de­cline in sales is mak­ing it dif­fi­cult for them to pro­vide for them­selves and their fam­i­lies.

Raf­fick Khan, vice pres­i­dent of the Dow Vil­lage South Oropouche Fish­ing As­so­ci­a­tion, said oil and gas from the Or­ange Val­ley spill have in­fil­trat­ed their fish­ing grounds.

“It cir­cu­lat­ing in the Gulf and com­ing to Ota­heite here. We al­ready had a stig­ma here from the last oil spill and we nev­er got over that from since then to now. Now we have this oil spill here.”

Al­though fish­er­men are eat­ing their catch, Khan said the pub­lic is scared to buy from them.

“When the fish­er­men go out to work and come back here no­body here to buy the fish and shrimp. The pub­lic not com­ing here to buy noth­ing at all.”

He com­plained that they are get­ting a run-around from the au­thor­i­ties.

“What En­er­gy (Min­istry) is say­ing is that al­lyuh have some­body to as­sist al­lyuh which is Fish­eries and when we go to Fish­eries, Fish­eries say­ing that En­er­gy re­spon­si­ble for that, so is like they spin­ning we right around and we don’t know where he head­ing. We call­ing on the me­dia, on the Gov­ern­ment, the Prime Min­is­ter, the Min­is­ter of En­er­gy for them to in­ter­vene in this and let the fish­er­men know where they stand right now.”

He wants the rel­e­vant au­thor­i­ties to do the nec­es­sary tests to de­ter­mine if the seafood is safe to con­sume.

Khan called for com­pen­sa­tion for loss of earn­ings.

“School open­ing just now, chil­dren have to get books, wife have to get some­thing, every­body have to get some­thing. What we get­ting, oil and gas we get­ting.”

Khan said they are pre­pared to take their protest to Port-of-Spain if they don’t get any re­dress.

Ota­heite Ven­dors As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent Clement Charles said con­sumers pan­ic when­ev­er there is an oil spill in the sea.

“We want the Min­is­ter of Health, Min­is­ter of En­er­gy, to­geth­er with Min­is­ter of Agri­cul­ture, to come clean and let the pub­lic know that the fish is safe to eat. So busi­ness can go on as usu­al.”

Charles al­so com­plained that last Sep­tem­ber the Ota­heite Fish Mar­ket was re­paired but it re­mained locked be­cause of a man­age­ment is­sue. Ven­dors com­plained that it was not fair as they have to sell on wood­en stalls out­side the mar­ket.