In April it was the undertakers speaking out, last month taxi drivers were up in arms, and now it is the fish scrapers and fish vendors who have a problem with the City Council's new taxes. Last month the City Council started charging fish vendors and scrapers at the Vernon Street Market $25 per month to work on the street side. You may be thinking $25 a month doesn't sound like that much but it is for fisher folks living on the margins of the job market. Keith Swift has the story.

Keith Swift Reporting, [keithkswift@gmail.com]
The Vernon Street Fish Market - it is a bustling hub of commercial activity with the fishermen sailing in with their daily catch, the fish vendors buying and selling, the fish cleaners who scrape and de-scale the prized product, and there are even jobs for children who sell these shilling bags. But this network of fish industry workers who make a living out here say they are being taxed out of a job and a livelihood by City Hall.

Fish Cleaner #1,
[Showing Receipt to Camera] "See it here, $25 to scrape fish."

You heard correct - they only make 50 cents a pound scraping fish and now the Belize City Council is charging them $25 a month to clean their fish on the street side.

Fish Cleaner #2,
"We don't mind to pay a $1 because everybody has to pay tax in life, everybody, but it is not correct to charge $25 to clean fish. Do you know how many poor people are out here. We have to buy a pack bread and thing and then are charging us $25 for just cleaning fish. Me personally am out here trying to hustle a $2 or $3 to try buy a pack bread or something and then they are charging $25 to clean fish. That is not right. It is not right none at all.

I have a daughter who is going into standard 2 right now. Will they help me buy the books? No. I have to get out here and try to get mines to help her buy her books. Who will feed her? They won't feed her if you go there. The first thing they will tell is how they are not responsible for your child. So why are they pressuring poor people?"

Dolfo, Fish Cleaner
"It is real roughness. Musa is really dealing with some abstract which we can't handle and that will let people just develop a mind and try do something out of the way because they are trying to stop us from the hustle. They are trying to stop poor man from eating. This is like hand to mouth because its not everyday fish come out here. Its not everyday fishermen go to sea and bring this amount of fish for us to clean. So if we don't get any fish we don't make any money and then we still have to pay the $25."

The fish market has also become an unlikely venue of income for children. Today I met kids as young as 9 years old cleaning fish and selling plastic bags. 13-year-old Albert Hinds works in the market - cleaning fish for 50 cents a pound. He's saving the money to buy books for the new school year. And while he may seem young to be working in a fish market - according to City Hall you're never too young to be taxed and today he told us that he has been advised that he since is a fish cleaner he will also have to pay the $25 a month.

Albert Hinds, Fish Cleaner
"Every week they come to collect."

Keith Swift,
Have they charged you yet?

Albert Hinds,
"No. I won't pay nothing because for a long time I have been cleaning fish and we won't pay them at all because they are just 'chancey.'"

And it is not just the fish cleaners - fishermen say they are also being taxed out of business. This fishermen who asked to be identified as "out yah" returned from a day out at sea with his catch. It is not much and he says it will be barely enough to break even - much less pay the taxes.

'Out Yah,' Fisherman
"For the boat and everything we pay like nearly five bills ($500). We have to register the boat, license the boat, you have to got a captain license to go fishing, and this and that. This is real kill man its like you don't even want to talk about it. You would just want to put it into some action and don't even talk about it because we are already poor and we are suffering. What is the man doing with we? He is trying to finish kill we ma boy. Check this out, you see any profit in this? This is a catch right here for the day. This is the catch right here for the day and you don't even make back what you spend."

And if you are wondering what all this will means for you, the consumer of fish, well one customer found out the hard way this morning.

Fish Customer,
[Speaking to Vendor] "5 bills man I got 5 bills on me right now. I came from way in Belama."

Keith Swift,
But so you didn't know the price of fish went up?

Fish Customer,
"No those fish are expensive. Boy government is playing. Government is making man have to thief and rob out here because life is already hard."

Hetta Marin is a fish vendor. She has been out here since she was 14 years old. Her receipt proves that she too has to pay $25. She says she has no problem paying the tax but she wants to know what she is paying for.

Hetta Marin, Fish Vendor
"Its $25 a month per vendor and they make us know that if you don't pay the $25 then they will confiscate your stuff because you need to pay the vendor license. But what I am saying is I don't have a problem paying the $25 but they are charging we to sell over there and watch the conditions. Watch the street side which they haven't fixed, we don't have any water, we don't got anything. We don't even have a bathroom out here.

I don't have no problem paying but at least they should have a bathroom. I am a female and out here and I can't do my bathroom business on street side, I need a bathroom. And I am not the only female who sells fish out here. We have the lady who sells bag and all of those people have to use the bathroom. In the market under here we don't have any water for ourselves and we have to pay 75 cents for a bucket of water when we need it."

Keith Swift,
For those of us at home, how will this affect the price of fish?

Hetta Marin,
"Definitely fish has to go up. It has already gone up due to gas and due to them who are taxing us. It has to go up."

A way of life for an entire cross-section of the community from the fishermen down to you the seafood lover - now being threatened by higher taxes.

We note the licensing fee for boat owners is imposed by the Port Authority and not the City Council.