Fishy Friday has people queueing
THEY queued from 5am – all for the fish they will pickle, batter or grill on Good Friday.
And those queues of people outside Fisherman Fresh in Port Elizabeth had been lining up all week, staff at the fish shop said yesterday.
Sharmilla van Heerden, 51, coowner of Fisherman Fresh, said the shop was always busy, with Easter and Christmas the busiest.
“Every year during the Easter season it’s packed with people demanding a variety of fish,” she said.
This year was a little different, with queues starting as early as 5am, Van Heerden said.
“It may be because there is less competition now – we have very few of us selling fish in town,” she said.
Van Heerden said Maasbanker was the most popular fish over Easter, as it was used for pickling.
She said fish demand skyrocketed at Easter due to church traditions that encourage congregants to abstain from meat on the anniversary of Christ’s death.
Standing in the queue, Rochelle Brown, 38, from Schauderville, said she followed the tradition of not eating meat from warm-blooded animals on Easter Fridays as an acknowledgment of Jesus’s death.
Brown said that she tolerated the long queue as she was preparing for the Easter weekend and needed fresh fish.
“The fish that I bought today, I can also prepare on Monday – that’s how fresh their fish is,” she said.
Leticia Gomonono, 64, a vendor from New Brighton, said that she had been queueing from 6am.
“I always make a profit buying from them [Fisherman Fresh] and the Easter season is when I make more money,” she said.