GROS ISLET, St. Lucia--Gros Islet fishers are celebrating what they say was a massive catch of thousands of flying fish.
When the fish went on sale Thursday morning, consumers bought them all within a relatively short period of time, according to reports.
Residents of the community explained that one individual bought more than 800 fish that were being sold at EC $1 apiece.
“Man this was awesome to see this morning people rushing to the Gros Islet fish market for flying fish,” one consumer wrote on social media.
“The price was not that bad at five for $5.00 – judging for so long that this has not been seen on the island,” the social media post said.
Former President of the Gros Islet Fishermen’s Cooperative, Ricky Mc Doom recalled that about 2003, St. Lucia recorded some of the largest flying fish catches in the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS).
“We were landing boatloads of flying fish,” Mc Doom told St. Lucia Times. However, he observed that since then the number of fish has dwindled. But he explained that what happened on Wednesday was unprecedented since that time.
“We have not had anything close – not even a quarter of what the guys used to land back then,” Mc Doom disclosed.
“What we saw yesterday [Wednesday – Ed.], we did not think that would ever happen,” the former President told St. Lucia Times.
He said fishermen had concluded that the Sargassum seaweed had something to do with the lack of flying fish in the waters.
“I thought that we did not have a lack of flying fish in the water, but the way of catching flying fish is different to any other type of fishing,” Mc Doom stated.
He explained that the fish congregate to spawn.
Mc Doom said fishers tie together banana leaves and put them in the water to attract the fish to lay eggs on the floating device.
“With the seaweed almost everywhere in the water, it creates a level of confusion and they could not congregate sufficiently,” the former president noted. He observed that as a result, fishers who went out could not do as they did in the past to entice and entrap the fish.
“What we saw yesterday [Wednesday], whether it is as a result of maybe not seeing as much Sargassum – it’s still around but not as prevalent as we saw a few months or a few years ago – that may have helped the fishers,” Mc Doom explained.
He concluded that the catch on Wednesday was unprecedented “in our era.”
According to reports from Gros Islet, two fishermen went out to sea Wednesday about 9:00am and returned about 9:00pm with over 5,000 flying fish between them.
The fish went on sale Thursday morning.
One fisherman said the two had since returned to sea.
“When they come back we will know whether it was luck and chance,” the fisher told St. Lucia Times. ~ St. Lucia Times ~
