No fishing in troubled waters: Vessels return

Due to the stormy conditions in the Arabian sea, over 5,000 fishing vessels have returned to ports along the Karnataka coast over the last two days. Ports in Mangalore, Malpe, Hejmady, Hungarcutta, Bhatkal, Honnavar, Tadadi and Baithkol and Mazali in Karwar have been flooded with boats which have returned to the shore.

“It is not possible to go into the sea. Our fellow fishermen have reported that the waves in the Arabian sea are as tall as a three-storey building and no boat can tide over such monstrous waves,” said Navinchandra Karkera, owner of Mahalakshmi, a purse seine boat.

“Over 90% of the vessels that were operational in the Karnataka coast have returned. Majority of them have anchored in Ullal, Mangalore and Malpe. Some of them even have been forced to enter the safe waters of the New Mangalore Port as the sea has been very rough,” Suresh Kumar, deputy director of fisheries, told DNA.

The monsoon fury that has continued to ravage the western coast has been marked by heavy rains, strong winds and unusually large waves. The fisheries department on Friday sent a message to boats about the situation in the sea and appealed to them not to venture out into the sea till a further notice.

The situation has been same in southern Maharashtra and Goa and northern Kerala as the fishing boats from those states have started coming back to ports in Baithkol in Karwar, Mangalore and Malpe in Udupi district.

Sudheer Mogera of Baithkol who owns a fleet of fishing vessels said: “We were looking for a good catch. But the delayed re-entry of monsoon has foiled the fishing season. Our collection is already 40% less. We are afraid we would not even recover the money spent on repairing the vessels during the fishing holiday.”

As fishing came to a halt, prices of fish of all varieties have hit the roof. The prices of the down-to-earth variety Bhutai (Sardine) which were selling at Rs40 per kg (or 12 pieces for Rs20) have now shot up to Rs80 per kg (or 12 pieces for Rs40). Mackerel is now out of the common man’s reach as prices have soared to unprecedented levels at Rs160 per kg (or Rs140 for five pieces).
Prices of other varieties like pomfret, sear, cuttlefish
and croaker, have also gone up 40-60%.
“It is difficult for western coast fish merchants to capture a high-value market like Bangalore. The city is lucky to be nearer to Chennai. It gets a copious supply of all varieties of fish from Chennai in railway wagons which work out cheaper than the fish from Karnataka’s own coast. So Bangalore’s fish gourmets are lucky to be insulated from fluctuations in the prices,” said Abdul Hamid, a supplier of fish to Bangalore.
“The new fishing season began on August 10. Supply and prices should have stabilised by now. But our men had only two or three outings in the last one month due to the rough sea,” said chairman of Karnataka Fisheries Development Corporation Nithin Kumar.
The fishermen have also been weary of going into the sea for another reason: they are not clear if insurance companies will activate the insurance cover. Normally, they would not cover the vessels during the fishing holiday period from June 10 to August 1, but now the conditions in the sea is worse than what it would be during peak monsoons.
    m_raghuram@dnaindia.net