Karnataka - Mangalore   

Fishing season concludes

By Our Staff Correspondent

MANGALORE, JUNE 9. The fishing season for 2003-04 ended on Wednesday with the vessels being hauled up for the monsoon and moored at various hamlets of fishermen along the coasts of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi.

"The season has not been too good for fishermen or too bad either," the Deputy Director of the Fisheries Department, Suresh Kumar, said. He told The Hindu that unlike the previous year, the catch was "steady" this year. He put the total catch for the season at 83,784 tonnes worth Rs. 199.54 crore.

Mr. Kumar noted that this year, fishing was affected to some extent because of the low catch of varieties such as cuttle fish, ribbonfish, seer fish, pomfret, and prawn.

The catch contained mackerels and sardines even on the last day of the fishing season, he said. But the Government's ban on fishing following the onset of the monsoon and the resultant rough sea would be in effect from June 10 to August 15, he added.

However, the outcry over a fall in the fish catch does not go well with the statistics of the department. The department maintains that there has been only seven per cent to eight per cent decrease in the fish catch over that of the previous year.

This trend is also witnessed in Udupi, where the fish catch this year is 57,921 tonnes (Rs. 100.75 crore) as against 65,351 tonnes (Rs. 111.88 crore) during 2002-03.

But fishermen's associations argue that since 2000, the fish catch has declined by 35 per cent. In addition, they say that they have been deprived of 10,000 kilolitres of subsidised diesel for the past two years.

They say that they used to get 55,000 kilolitres of subsidised diesel till 2002, which was reduced to 50,000 kilolitres in 2002-03 and 2003-04.

The working president of the Karnataka Fishermen's Association, Loknath Bolar, says that because of a delay in the release of subsidised diesel this year, many vessels could not go on fishing expeditions, particularly purse-siene boats and trawlers, which brings in large catches.

The fishermen are also sceptical about the ban on fishing. Goa and Kerala have different ban periods which are shorter than that of Karnataka, they say. This year also, maritime States of the west coast have failed to reach an agreement on a uniform ban on fishing in the west coast, they add.

Perhaps, Karnataka is one of the States to try out innovative methods to improve fish production. It was the first to consider "fish ranching," which is a popular French method of induced production and spawning.

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