By: Ilyasa Baa
Sierra Leoneans before and after the general elections have been seeing increment in the price of fish which has been the main source of protein for most Sierra Leoneans especially in the Western Areas having the largest wharf in Tombo in the Western Rural District where fish mongers get their fish to sell to the general public in various markets.
The question on the lips of people has been why the price of fish increases in the markets?
Aminata Kamara, a cookery seller in Waterloo intimated this medium that when it comes to fish, business is not as usual. “When the fuel was at Le 10, I used to buy good fish so my customers got satisfied but now, it is just Hearings and Bonga and my customers are grumbling”, she revealed to this medium.
“I have been eating cookery everyday”, said Osman Sesay, a trader in Jui Way. “Apart from the fact that we now pay more than what we used to pay for a plate of rice, the fact remains that my brother, you have to be lucky to see fish in that plate of rice”, he lamented, during an exclusive interview.
Abubakarr Kanu has been fishing in Tombo for the past twenty years. He revealed that it is not illegal fishing that is responsible for the price hike in fishery products but the high price of fuel. He said sometimes because of limited fuel in their machines, they are not able to reach where they should reach to catch more fish for the markets.
According to Memunatu Sankoh, who buys fish at Tombo Wharf to sell at the Waterloo – Tombo Park Market, sometimes she waits on the boats from morning to late in the evening to fill her basket so she could sell to consumers. She as well cast aspersions on the high price of fuel that it is responsible for the grumblings over the price of fish in the markets.
It could be recalled that in 2018, President Julius Maada Bio said IUU fishing was costing the country $50 million a year. Authorities have since stepped up efforts to arrest crews of fishing vessels operating without a licence.
The drop in fish stocks had been blamed on giant industrial fleets from the Far East that trawl the country’s Inshore Exclusion Zone, which is reserved for traditional fishermen.