“When they do go out, they almost always exceed the allowed fishing time, and come back with no fish,” she adds.
Times of scarcity alternate with periods of abundance, but this leads to post-capture losses because of a lack of refrigeration units and also of seafood processing equipment.
“In September and October, we tend to capture a lot of fish, and because we have no means to conserve them, we have to cut our prices so we can sell the catch before it goes bad,” Maria explains.
She says that many fishmongers in her community have received training on different methods of processing fish, such as smoking, canning, and salting.
“However, we don’t have the space or the materials we need in order to combat fish loss and waste by transforming it into seafood products,” she says.
As well, Maria and her community have noticed their marine area is becoming more polluted, including by trash being thrown overboard during tourist sea excursions.
“We have already had several cases of turtles dying because they ingested plastic or other garbage,” she recounts. “In another case, a lot of people got food poisoning by eating fish that had been contaminated in the sea, before it was caught.”
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
/1x.jpeg?auto=webp)
/1x.jpeg?auto=webp)
/1x.jpeg?auto=webp)
/1x.jpeg?auto=webp)
/1x.jpeg?auto=webp)
/1x.jpeg?auto=webp)