Sustaining a livelihood through fishing despite challenges

Jun 12, 2022 News

By Malisa Playter-Harry

Kaieteur News – People from all levels of society have found many ways to earn. In fact, having a job so that you don’t have to worry about paying the bills and putting food on the table, brings a sense of ease and comfort.

Sharon Grant who has been living in Albion for over 20 years is a supportive wife to her husband

Sharon Grant, 49, has been living in Albion Village, East Berbice Corentyne for the past 29 years with her husband Robbie Madramootoo, a fisherman for over 18 years. The couple had three children – two daughters and a son – but their son died just over two years ago.
According to Grant, from the time she got married and lived in Albion, she and her husband have been doing various jobs to earn a living, with fishing as their main source of income.
“We do a lot of things, my husband sell at the school, work at the sugar estate, work at sea. He use to get a grass cutter and hustle and then he buy a boat and he continue he job in the sea,” Grant said.
When they bought their first boat, it was not easy sailing for them, as, according to Grant, they were plagued with piracy attacks. Indeed, this was a demotivation factor for them, and they decided to sell the boat. Sometime after, they decided to purchase another boat, 18 years ago, and since then her husband has been actively involved in the fishing industry.

Robbie Madramootoo displays a big fish he was lucky to catch

The fishing business, she said, “is a good business”, as it has helped to sustain their existence for many years. But when the year 2020 came, Grant said her husband, along with other fishers, started to face some difficulties to make a decent catch. She said if her husband makes $10,000 – $20,000 a week and this has been the result of the diminishing catch – in the past they made much more. The earnings from the catch, Grant explained, goes towards their bills while she has ventured into rearing ducks and chicken to make an extra dollar.
“Me does mind fowl and duck, our livelihood in and out depend on he fishing and it supports the family a lot. Right now, it lil hard but before time it was good. The finances from the fishing does help to pay the bills, the chicken money and so does help clear the expenses in the home.” Grant said.
Her husband, she said, would usually spend four days out at sea with other fishermen on their boat but when he returns, the catch is not as it used to be and her husband, along with others, are convinced that since the commencement of drilling by the Oil and Gas giant, ExxonMobil, “it chasing the fish away.”
This has however, been dispelled by Government, through its Ministry of Agriculture, which has been instead been linking the diminishing fish catch to climate change as suggested by a Food and Agriculture Organisation’s study.
But Madramootoo, according to Grant, usually tells her all about the struggles he faces out at sea when it comes to getting a good catch.
“The reason why things have slowed down, dem na really catch much, because the fish na deh like before because a lot of boats deh now and dem too, dem say the oil drilling, it chasing the fish away because sometimes they go far out and spend a lot of expense and dem na do no catching because all dem fisherman saying because of the oil,” the woman added.
However, despite their difficulties, Grant said that they have been trying to live a comfortable life with whatever they can afford, and while the troubles in the fishing industry have impacted their family financially, they will continue to ply the trade as it is their main means of eking out a living. She is, however, hopeful that sooner or later things will improve and fishing can once again be a lucrative business to benefit from.

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