The Hindu : Karnataka News : Traditional fishermen have very little time left

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Karnataka

Karnataka

Traditional fishermen have very little time left

Govind D. Belgaumkar

They are trying to make the most of the ban on fishing by mechanised boats, which ends on August 10

Traditional fishermen get about 20 per cent of the catch
They cannot fish once the trawlers arrive on the scene

— Photo: R. Eswarraj

Hoping for a big catch: Traditional fishermen readying their nets in mangalore on Thursday.

MANGALORE: Traditional fishermen, most of who cannot afford to invest in mechanised vessels and continue to use smaller traditional boats with outboard engines, are a worried lot on Karnataka’s coast.

They have little time left to fish before mechanised vessels — which have a holiday from June 15 (to facilitate fish breeding in deep sea) — get back to business. Even as they pool their “Rani” nets to venture into the sea, they say they have barely a month’s time to get their share of catch.

The traditional fishermen cannot fish once the trawl boats arrive on the scene, said Madhav Salian, a fisherman. Though the holiday is up to August 10, trawlers are allowed by August 2 or 3 if they assure not to return to the shore before August 10. That leaves only about 30 days for traditional fishermen to try their luck at sea, he said.

Fishermen organisations have said that though traditional fishermen — mostly belonging to Mogaveera community — constitute 80 per cent of the fishing population, they get only about 20 per cent of the catch.

Since individual fisherman cannot afford a net required to surround a school of fish sighted in the sea, they pool in their nets, stitch together 30 to 35 of them and venture into the sea on a day suggested by their fortune teller.

“We are so dependent on nature. We believe in divine blessings,” says Mr. Salian, who is the tandel (leader) of the Mahadevi Fund. The Fund for them is an informal cooperative of fishermen, who pool their “Rani” nets (ones with small holes) and commonly own one or two traditional boats.

On Thursday, a bed of nets — mostly red in colour — were spotted on the banks of the Gurupur River estuary in Sultan Bathery. Almost every member of Mr. Salian’s Fund was busy “setting” the net. If Ramdas and other members were joining nets with nylon threads, Jockim Lobo and others were trying to fix the rings to the bottom of the net. The fishermen explained that a thick rope is passed through these rings. When the net is spread around a school of fish, the rope is pulled so that net closes in at the bottom of the sea and forms bowl locking the fish. Then the net is pulled up. The process is repeated till fishermen are tired or it is time to go ashore. The net so used is called in local parlance as “matabale” style. Another style is “kai-rampani” where the net is pulled only by hands not using a rope, says Mr. Salian.

In the sea, they are guided by an expert — locally known as “Arya” — who finds the schools of fish.

Mr. Salian (63), who passed SSLC studying in a night school, is the head of a fund which owns two fibre boats. He says that the members together avail a loan of Rs. 50,000 from an informal cooperative of the fishermen.

The fishermen keep 30 per cent of the earnings for repayment of loan and future investment and share the remaining among themselves.

Smaller groups of two to four members, like the one led by Mahesh Karkera, are also getting ready with their nets of different variety — Rampani, Kandadi and Pocket.

It was busy time for Shekhar Kotian, who makes a living by stitching torn nets. The man hardly raised head as he spoke to this correspondent. “I have to finish repairing the net by tonight,” he said.

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