From fisherman to vendor

A fisherman for the past 35 years, Cyril Laborde knows that good weather and bait are essentials for a good catch. Today he is also a vendor at the now refurbished Kingstown Fish Market where he sells his fish in comfort.

Without complaining, the hard worker noted that the public has developed a respect for the fisher folk over the years. He pointed out: “People pass those ages where they used to look down on fishermen. Now they are very concerned about fisher folk, they have a lot of respect for us because right now fish is the best food we have. It is the only food that we not using chemicals in. It’s a natural product and most people going for fish because it’s healthy.” {{more}}

But the cost of living healthy can sometimes be too much for a few customers, which ends up in abuse of the vendor. The fisherman tells of an experience: “In between you get those people but, in the end they just human. Up to this morning I had an incident where I weigh the fish, explained to the person the price. The person watched the scale and wanted to give me a smaller price for the fish, so that was a problem.”

There is no price tag that a consumer could put on the service that fisher folk give; from sun up to sun down the hunters of the vast sea risk their lives to bring ashore the catch which they hustle to sell. Proud of his honest living, the businessman can truly celebrate independence because of the money he earns from the natural resource he gets from the sea. He confessed, “Independence is a part of us as Vincentians and fishing is a part of we too. We have some of the best fish, and the better environment and I am enjoying it, I have my whole family right now on strictly fish. We are doing well as fish vendors, but we will also like to see the market do more business.”