Consett Bay fisherfolk upset over unannounced market repairs

Fish vendors at the Consett Bay Fish Market are crying foul over repairs being carried out without notice, saying the unexpected work has disrupted their operations just weeks before the busy Easter season.

A vendor with more than 20 years’ experience, who spoke on behalf of several operators at the market in St John on Friday, said fisherfolk returned there after a period of rough seas, only to find repairs already underway.

The vendor told Barbados TODAY: “None of the people in here knows when it started. It started last week or this week. We were home for just over two weeks due to hard seas.”

“We had hard seas so no boats was coming. All of us came back here yesterday for the first time since we had hard seas.”

She complained that no official notice was given before the work started.

“We does work in the market and nobody came and told us anything. A notice could have come out telling us what going on. You should tell people when the work starting and how long it will take. Yah just don’t come and drop work pon people so.”

According to the vendor, the repairs are taking place in areas used for storing ice and processing fish, forcing vendors to prepare their catch outside the designated processing space in the gutting area.

“We have to come out here to clean the fish. We can’t clean it in the market.”

The fisherfolk spokeswoman said the timing of the work was particularly frustrating, noting that the fishing season normally slows between July and October, when such upgrades could have been completed with minimal disruption.

“The fishing season does close off in July and start back in October, so during that time is when work should be doing, not now,”she said.

“I am annoyed about it because no one notified us. This is the second time this happen, that work come and start without notifying the fisherfolk. It says you have no respect for us.”

While the vendors welcomed improvements to the market, they argued that the work should have been better planned.

“We want the upgrades but still you can’t inconvenience us from making our living. This is our daily bread. The work should be arranged in a way that people feel comfortable.”

“So this is frustrating. These things ain’t right. Easter season coming up and this putting us at a disadvantage.”

The vendor added that fisherfolk hoped the repairs would be completed before the Easter rush in April, when demand for fish traditionally increases: “We ain’t saying we ain’t want the work done, we want it done. But you had months during the closed season when nobody was in the market. Why the work wasn’t done at that time?

“So we hoping this work will be done before Easter. That ain’t want put us out because we have health and safety standards to maintain and we are to clean the fish in the processing hall, not out here.”

On Friday, the vendors were cleaning flying fish at the market, although the catch had not been landed at Consett Bay. Most of the boats currently at sea were targeting fish for the upcoming Easter demand, fisherfolk said.

They expected vessels returning to the landing site in the coming days to bring barracuda, dolphin, kingfish, chubs and pot fish, species commonly landed at Consett Bay.

But the senior manager of fish markets, Eric Lewis, sought to reassure vendors that the repairs would be completed quickly and would not significantly disrupt their work.

“It’s just a painting job. It’s not going to take very long,” Lewis said.

“Just a couple days and they have space that they can work.”

Lewis explained that the work followed recent repairs to the building’s roof and forms part of minor improvements at the facility.

“We’ve recently repaired the roof and we told them that we were going to paint inside but we needed to repair the roof first. The roof has been repaired and there’s still some minor little things that need to be done, but we’ve been pushing ahead to make sure that they are comfortable in just a couple days. It’s nothing major that’s going on. They won’t be dislocated or affected by noise or drilling and that kind of stuff.”