THE mid-morning heat is unbearable as a female vendor, with one hand akimbo and the other holding a measuring scale, is bargaining feverishly with a customer.

They are haggling over the price of the fish being weighed. Elsewhere on the beach, similar bargains are taking place as sellers and buyers, eager to get the best possible deal, attempt to satisfy each other’s demands. Welcome to Alligator Pond in southern Manchester, where the fishing beach is the main hub of activity in the community.

For nearly half the residents living in Alligator Pond, money earned from the fishing business is what puts food on the table. For these hardworking men and women, the business is an unpredictable one, marked by intermittent seasons of high yield and drought. But in recent times, the renowned seaside fishing village has been experiencing one of its ‘driest’ seasons.

With very rough conditions at sea which drives fear into the hearts of the fishermen, poor boat conditions for many and a beach in desperate need of a clean-up, activity at Alligator Pond has been at a stagnant low for months, according to residents. As a result, they make very few sales.

Boat owner and vendor, Arlene Dixon, painted a gloomy picture of life on the beach for vendors, fishermen and boat owners.

“It is really bad with us right now, trust me. The quantity of fish that we are now getting is so low that we can hardly survive when we sell what we get. We have been having a lot of bad weather so that just add to the problem,” Dixon, 39, told the Sunday Observer. “It is really frustrating because when we get little fish we have to sell it at a price that consumers are not used to and they complain. We have to sell a pound of fish for $250 now, when it is usually between $150 and $200 that we usually sell it for. That’s how bad it is.”

Dixon further pointed out that at times, due to the shortage, other fishing beaches snapped up their customers.

“Sometimes people have to bring in fish from other ports like Pedro Bank here and that is a further setback for us,” she said. “Basically, the fishing industry seems to be on a down low.”

But Dixon also added that improper fishing practices, such as “blasting” by some fishermen, further worsens the situation, as this damages the reefs and drives away the fish.

Rosalee Brown, who has been a vendor at Alligator Pond for more than 20 years, said vendors can hardly support themselves and their families from the “little” money they now make.

“It bad, nutten nah gwaan because the water rough and the man them can’t get to go to sea often. That ah spoil my business because me have bills to pay,” she said.

“Mi born and grow here 52 years now and this is one of the slowest seasons we ever have,” said another vendor, Miss Evans, who was busy scaling her fish.

Added Miss Gayle, a senior citizen: “Life has been very bad for us. My job is to scale fish. I am here every day except for Sundays and nothing not going on like one time. This is all we have to live off of. We have no help but to help ourselves.”

Women like Miss Evans and Miss Gayle and fishermen like ‘Peart’ have seen it all, having been involved in the fishing business for years. They say it is their love for the industry and the seaside that keeps them pressing on, despite the hardships they now face on a daily basis.

“Mi love fishing. From mi ah 10-years-old, me coming down to the beach. I go out and fish for some boat owners and sometimes for myself. It’s a good job except when nothing too tough nah gwaan pon di beach like now,” said the fisherman, who insisted that we call him by his nickname, ‘Peart’.

Glancing around the fishing beach, you notice the rugged shoreline, old and damaged boats in need of repair stacked together, run-down cookshops, thatched huts for washing and scaling fish and shops where visitors purchase cold beverages and a track leading to the world-famous Little Ochi restaurant, a popular tourist spot where a seafood festival is staged annually. A sore sight was the pieces of garbage littering the sand and several huge black spots that resembled stains.

“The beach want to be fixed up, man and we nuh have nobody fi give us no assistance. I mean, this is what we do fi a living and we must can get some help to make the place look little better because we hardly making any money and we ah nuh rich people,” Peart told the Sunday Observer.

Dixon made mention of the damage that the fishing village suffered during the passage of hurricanes such as Ivan and Emily in recent years – the effects of which, she said, they were still feeling.

“Storm come and mash we up and we were not dealt with properly by the authorities. We need some help from the government to get some proper equipment like rolls of wire and nets for the fishermen to help our business,” she said. “In terms of the beach cleaning, we try to do some of it on holidays to make the place look more presentable to visitors but we can only do so much and no more.

“Everything have to come out of our pockets and we don’t have it. Many of the boats you see line off on the beach need fixing and no money is available to do it. We need help bad. The other day. I have to source a part for my boat and I was told that it would have to come from Japan. It cost me over $60,000. The gas prices are also way up and I don’t think the Fisheries Division is doing enough for us local fishermen.”

Efforts by the Sunday Observer to get a comment from the Fisheries Division in the Ministry of Agriculture were unsuccessful. But at a recent graduation ceremony for 15 Jamaican fishermen, who participated in a free training course at the Caribbean Maritime Institute (CMI), director of the division, Andre Kong, said that due to increasing cases of fishermen being lost at sea, new laws would be passed purporting that no Jamaican fishermen will be licensed unless he has some form of life insurance and display competence at handling fishing vessels. He also stated that his division in partnership with the CMI and Food For The Poor were working assiduously to give Jamaican fishermen the opportunity to better themselves through free strategy and survival training.

At the ceremony, state minister for agriculture, Victor Cummings pointed out that due to “overfishing in our waters and the insecurity of fishers at sea that have plagued the local fishing community”, they would be embarking on a programme to bring training and modern technology to the local fishing community.

“For the first time in the history of Jamaica, local fishers will get the opportunity to be part of a formal, structured training ring with the view to equipping them with modern ideas and equipment to deal firmly with the twin problem of overfishing and safety and survival at sea,” Cummings said, adding that 285 more fishermen from fishing beaches across the island are set to benefit. But manager of public relations and pilgrimage at Food For The Poor, Delroy Whyte-Hall, told the Sunday Observer in a phone interview that Alligator Pond is not listed among the 18 fishing beaches to benefit from the programme.

In the meantime, another major concern of the vendors at Alligator Pond is the absence of warning signs and lifeguards at the beach to help protect foreign and local visitors, especially the young ones.

“We need some warning signs to be put up around the beach because the water can be very dangerous and unsuspecting persons, usually those who come from other areas, can get in trouble with the water because they are not familiar with the area and we as residents are not going to be on the beach at all times,” said Dixon.

Peart said that last week, three people drowned at the beach.

But despite the plethora of problems the fishing village faces, the residents say they are grateful that the community does not have a pressing crime problem.

“It would not be fair to say that life in Alligator Pond is totally bad. We have to give thanks for life. This is a violence-free area. We don’t have those kinds of problems and we have to give thanks for that. Tourists are safe when they come here,” said Dixon, who is also mother of three teenage sons. “Even though we struggle from day to day, we try to live good with each other like a decent community. If you don’t have a job, you not going to be hungry because we try to help each other out. You can come down to the beach and get a fish to go home and cook. We give each other space to live. But life would be better still if we could just get the fishing business back on track,” she added.

Alligator Pond, which is considered geographically and culturally unique when compared to other tourist areas on the north coast, is located at the base of the Don Figueroa Mountains, roughly 35 kilometres from Mandeville, the capital of Manchester. According to residents, the name of the community is derived from the shape of the mountain range, which when viewed from the beach has some bumpy features, resembling the back of an alligator. Shopkeeper Ann-Marie Ricketts said the sea-side environment is a huge plus for the district.

“The peace of mind and the cool breeze that you get in Alligator Pond is just amazing and it attracts a lot of people to the area on a regular basis. Some visitors come every day as long as we have fry fish,” Ricketts said.

And while a few other residents point to the roads in need of repair, water shortage, other socio-economic problems and call for more visits from their member of parliament, House Speaker Michael Peart, they say they are blessed to be living in such a tranquil area of Jamaica.

“I don’t think I would leave Alligator Pond for any reason at all. This is where wi born and grow. If we could just get the fishing to be booming again, we would be very happy. But for now, we are just taking it one day at a time,” Ricketts stated.