As they pre­pare to deal with COVID-19, many peo­ple are stock­ing up on fish, shrimp and conchs.

At the Ota­heite fish de­pot in south Trinidad, ven­dors say there has been a high­er de­mand for fish than usu­al. One of them, Ram­cha­ran Par­tap, said this is be­cause many peo­ple be­lieve eat­ing fish will boost their im­mune sys­tem.

“Fish has been sell­ing a lit­tle ex­pen­sive since Christ­mas but now that peo­ple are buy­ing more fish be­cause of this dis­ease, we are not rais­ing the price,” Par­tap said.

Carite costs be­tween $40 to $45 per pound, while salmon sells for $30 and red fish for $40.

“We al­so have cheap­er fish like bacheen and cro cro sell­ing for $15 per pound while mixed fish sells for $7 per pound,” he said.

Par­tap said to safe­guard against COVID-19 ven­dors and oth­ers who work at the fish de­pot are wash­ing their hands reg­u­lar­ly.

“We al­ways have wa­ter here and we are mak­ing sure that we wash our hands reg­u­lar­ly and we sani­tise,” he said.

An­oth­er ven­dor, Rocky Par­tap, said he too had no­ticed an in­crease in fish sales.

“More peo­ple are com­ing to buy. I think many are stock­ing up. Nor­mal­ly peo­ple would buy five pounds of carite but now peo­ple who have the mon­ey are buy­ing up to 20 pounds of fish,” he said.

At the Clax­ton Bay fish­ing de­pot, vice pres­i­dent of the Clax­ton Bay Fish­ing As­so­ci­a­tion Bha­dose Sook­nanan said fish sales are nor­mal.

“The prices are high since Christ­mas be­cause the vol­ume of fish is less. We are catch­ing less fish. Some­times we get carite, salmon, red­fish. The cheap­est fish­es are sell­ing more like cro cro and mixed fish be­cause peo­ple don’t have mon­ey to buy the ex­pen­sive fish,” he said.

At the San Fer­nan­do Fish­ing Port, fish­er­men Bhagie Ramkissoon said sales were slow be­cause of COVID- 19.

“We are go­ing at a nor­mal rate. We will like to see a cure for this thing and bring the coun­try and the world back to nor­mal,” he said.

“Our added pre­cau­tion is our in­dus­try since fish is a ma­jor food com­mod­i­ty we have dropped the prices. Al­ready we are sani­tis­ing to keep the place clean and peo­ple who are sick with the cold we have asked them to stay at home.

“Clean­li­ness is the most im­por­tant part we have to play.”