Fish prices crash as consumers stay away due to the oil spill in Mumbai.
Flies buzz around as Nandu Bhoir, 31, mends fishing nets on the verandah in front of his house. This resident of Vesave fishing village in Andheri seems upset as his eyes trail his seven-year-old son Mangesh hovering around.
"Dada… dada," the child calls and suddenly something snaps. "Shanta call him in, before I raise my hand to quiet him," he shouts to his wife. "Didn't I tell you not trouble him," his wife yells at Mangesh.
"He wants new jeans for Nariyal Purnima, our biggest festival, but this year I do not have the money," he says. Every year by now Nandu would have cleaned, painted his boat, and decorated it with flowers for the purnima puja. But the oil leak due to the sunken MV Rak Carrier has spoilt it all. "We're just going through the ritual for the sake of it," says Nandu.
Shanta, who sells fish at Juhu market, tells us that people are too scared to buy fish. "Though we get fewer customers in Shravan, we still make enough for a living. But this year we are not even getting our returns."
At her stall, portions of red and white prawns which sell for Rs100-125 await buyers at Rs60-70. Pomfrets which sell for Rs300-350 a pair are now selling for Rs175-200. Black pomfrets (halwa) which sell for Rs200-250 a piece, are available for Rs125-150. Kingfish (surmai) which sells for Rs250-300 is selling for nearly half the price.
A portion of Bombay duck (bombil) which sells for Rs50 is now going for half the price and anchovies (mandeli) have fallen from Rs30-50 a portion to Rs15-20.
Despite the low prices there are hardly any buyers. "If we spend so much on diesel and the khalasis (crew), there has to be some return; otherwise it's like we are going out to sea to drown our money," points out Maharashtra Rajya Macchimar Sahakari Sangh chairman Ramdas Sandhe.
Over 100 km away in Satpati off Palghar, Thane, 64-year-old Jeeva Tandel helps his sons clean barnacles stuck to their fishing boat from the last season. His daughter-in-law Nanda, explains how Nariyal Purnima marks the beginning of the new fishing season, and is the time when women offer a coconut to the sea on full moon day. "As our men go into the high seas, we pray that it brings them back safely," says Nanda.
Tandel curses the leaders who have forsaken them. "The trawlers from other states which fish even in the breeding season, rising diesel prises, and the repeated oil spills last year and now, just at the beginning of the fish breeding season, has meant we are worst hit," he says. "Our leaders surface before elections, make tall promises and vanish."
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