The Hindu : Kerala / Kochi News : Sea, rain conspire against fishermen

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jul 22, 2007
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Kerala

Kerala - Kochi

Sea, rain conspire against fishermen

K.P.M. Basheer

Traditional boats moored for six days in a row

Prices of pelagic fish rise in the market
Catch disappointing, say fishermen

KOCHI: After missing fishing for six days in a row, fishermen using valloms (traditional boats) went to the sea in the State on Thursday. Only half these boats ventured out, and the catch was poor.

The rough weather and the turbulent sea had kept the fishermen indoors, holding them back from making the best use of their exemption from the ban on monsoon fishing.

Most of the kappal valloms (large canoes powered by high-speed inboard engines) and those with 10-HP engines could not venture into the sea in the past week, as it had been extremely rough.

The heavy rain and storms churned up the sea even as the foul weather created havoc inland across the State. As fish supplies dropped, prices of pelagic fish rose in the market — for instance, to Rs. 50 a kg for sardines and Rs. 20 to 30 a mackerel. The exemption from the ban had raised hopes that prices would come down.

Four weeks into the exemption, bad weather has already stolen many fishing days, fish workers said. The Kerala Monsoon Fishery (Pelagic) Protection Act 2007, which exempted the traditional fishermen from fishing during the monsoon, took effect on June 21, but because of bad weather, it took a couple of days more for them to resume work. The ban on trawling will end by July 31 and the mechanised boats will be back.

Fish workers and their unions complain that contrary to high hopes about the exemption, the catch in the past four weeks has been disappointing. After the initial bumper harvest of prawns and a fairly good catch of sardines, fish shied away from the nets. The “kappal valloms,” with high operational costs, returned often with less than half the normal catch.

Madhusudana Kurup, fishery scientist at the Cochin University of Science and Technology, says about 30 per cent of Kerala’s fish harvest comes during the monsoon. Most of the harvest consists of pelagic fish, he adds.

However, fishermen in the Thiruvananthapuram area, who have gone fishing in the Indian Ocean and not in the Arabian Sea, have had fairly good catches during the period. Because of the availability of ‘neymeen’ (seer fish), they have been relatively well off.

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