Fishing activities comes to a halt as fishing season ends

Mangalore, June 10 (UNI) Mechanised fishing activities along the Karnataka coast came to a grinding grinding halt today following a ban on use of mechanised boats during monsoon season.

The season had not been a happy one for fishermen community mainly due to decreased catch of exotic fish which can bring some profits to the large number of fisherfolk in the nearly 200-km long coast in Karnataka. The catch, which had remained bad for the past few years, was again dissapointing as predomenantly common fish such as sardines and mackerel badly affected the income of the fisher folk.

According to Deputy Dakshina Kannada Director of Fisheries Suresh Kumar, the total catch for 2006-07 in the district was 88,972 Tonnes valued at Rs 338.54 crore while in Udupi district was 52.311 tonnes valued at Rs 171.09 crore. Uttara Kannada is the other district that comes under the coastal area.

The fishermen, along Karnataka coast, were deeply concerned with the drastic slump in the commercially profitable fish catch like white prawns over the years. Their leaders attribute the poor catch to increased activity of foreign deep-sea trawlers which were skimming the sea for exotic fish.

Vasudeva Boloor and Janardhan Tingalaya, fishermen leaders at Malpe told UNI due to the poor catch, most of the fishing boats returned to the shore much earlier before the ban in the just concluded season. Only 600 to 1200 boats had ventured into sea on fishing. Because of the poor catch, the boat owners were not even able to meet the diesel cost and crew expenses.

Mr. Boloor said that at least 90 foreign trawlers and 50 industrial fishing companies were engaged in fishing in the Indian Exclusive Economic Zone off the district coast throughout monsoon season which had caused drought of profitable fish.

Supporting the fishermen, experts at Fisheries College here say that irrational and over fishing by un-sustainable methods by the foreign vessels in deep sea was the main reason for the deep fall in the catch since last few years. They also felt that the prevailing sea temperature and nutrient should have yielded better catch.

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