With fishermen and fish vendors complaining about a massive drop in sales in the aftermath of the deadly MV Barima ferry tragedy offshore Essequibo, Agriculture Minister, Zulficar Mustapha is calling on citizens to ignore the false information being spread on social media about contaminated fish.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Minister Mustapha said there are fishing grounds where fishermen would operate their trade. He explained that those fishing grounds are not located anywhere close to where the ferry went down, claiming lives.

“There has been no scientific analysis to show that there has been any contamination of the fish. First of all, anybody who knows about fishes, these fish have their special fishing ground where people capture the fish from and its far out, far from where the incident happened and this has nothing to do with contamination, its a perception and social media pressure and people pushing these rumours. I want to appeal to customers out there, that the fish is safe, there is no contamination and we should continue to support our fisherfolks”, he said.

The Agriculture Minister said good sense should prevail and persons ought to continue supporting the fishing industry.

On social media, some persons have been sharing AI created images of old photographs in their rumour spreading about the fishing industry. Fishermen have complained that it is their livelihood that is being affected, and its also having an impact on the vendors that they supply.

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