A generous catch of solar shrimp netted by fishermen on Wednesday came as a relief to Panaji fish market vendors, who had been struggling to maintain their trade these past few days.

“The market is full of prawns. This is the first time in days our baskets are full. People had started to trickle into the market in the past few days, but, now, owing to the shrimp, there are many more visitors,” vendor Maruthi Naggar said.

However, not all buyers seemed enthusiastic about the availability of solar shrimps. A few varieties of fish also marked their return and citizens were seen negotiating rates with vendors.

Businessman Orlando Fernandes said, “The public is frightened to eat their staple food because of government’s irresponsibility to monitor our food. Even though I’ve always eaten local catch, which I believe is free of formalin, the rates currently are very high.”

Albetna Rodrigues, who has been selling fish for the last 24 years, said leftover fish and shrimp would be iced to enhance storage life. “We would never cheat our customers by chemically lacing fish no matter what our losses,” she said