Silvestre Parrales lives on Puná, an istand in the Gulf of Guayaquil. For decades, he’s been trapping crab in the mud of the mangroves that border the Guayas river. Until a month ago, he’d take his daily catch of crab, direct his boat to the docks near the Caraguay market, and begin to sell his product. He’d go to the market whenever he’d caught enough crab, at any hour during the day.

But now, the municipality has put up signs at the shore where the canoes of crab fishers and other commercial boats land, saying that there is now a schedule for use of the docks.

Parrales say the new restriction will affect the small income he gets daily from his sales. “Crabs are scarce and I usually only make $7 a day. Now I’ll have to go somewhere else to sell them.”

The new schedule imposed by the city says people docking to bring crustaceans into the market can land Monday to Saturday between 4 and 8 a.m., or between 11 a.m. and 9 p.m.. On Sundays they can land only between 4 and 8 a.m.

Fruit, vegetable and meat vendors at the Caraguay market say that there is also a new rule blocking anyone from entering the market after 9 a.m. to sell.

Daniel Eduardo, who sells chickens at the market, said the rule will cause product shortages. ”It’s a bad time to forbid stuff from coming in. We need to be fully stocked at that time of the day, for the customers who aren’t able to come earlier.”

He says the order to make the changes came down from the municipality, and was carried out by Caraguay market managers. This newspaper was not able to speak to the Caraguay managers after two days of trying.

The new rules have also affected the freedom of movement of the people that live on or travel towards the gulf islands of Puná and Santay.

Island dwellers can no longer dock freely and have had to find other places around the city to land their boats. Mayerli Carranza, of Santay, says the new rules have affected her daily trips to visit family in the Cuba barrio. She says boat traffic now backs up because of all the checking of commercial product that happens. Raúl Arreaga, of Puná, says the new schedule makes the trips back and forth longer.

“It’s so cumbersome just to get in... I just hope we don’t have an emergency some day and need to get to the hospital quickly.”

Original story