Come June 14 midnight, the 47-day long trawling ban will come into effect and there will start another spawning season of penury for the fishermen. Although the trawling ban is nothing new for them, what aggregates their gloom this year is the poor catch they got prior to the ban. At Puthiyappa Harbour, out of the total 400 mechanised boats operating, only a few have gone to sail the high seas in the last few weeks, due to the poor catch they were getting in the last two months.
“Normally, the fishermen survive the ban period from catches they make during the two months prior to the ban. However, this year, the catch was very poor. There were even instances of zero landings of sardines on several days. This has forced several boats to anchor before the trawling ban is officially put in place by the government," said Praveen, a fisherman at Puthiyappa.
N G K Pillai, former director, CMFRI, said, “It is a normal phenomenon. When the temperature of the surface water increases, the fishes would swim deeper. This will affect the catch during this period. Once the rain sets in, the sea will become rough and it will help in getting good catch again.”
But, though there would be no ban on non-mechanised and traditional boats, fishermen say that the rough seas during this season make it impossible to venture out.
Praveen further said that this year’s ban will bring utter misery to the fishermen colony. “As we have not earned anything in the months of April and May, fishermen will be forced to borrow from money lenders to survive the ban period. Although the government will announce free ration to the fishermen, it is not going to reach the beneficiaries. With no fishing trade, we will have to borrow further in order to do all the needed repairs on the boats,” he added.
Meanwhile T Peter, president, Kerala Swathantra Matsya Thozhilali Union, has urged the government to implement the trawling ban effectively.
“We have made two demands before the government- provide free ration to the fishermen and implement the trawling ban effectively,” he said.
Although the fisherfolk will find it difficult to make the ends meet, the only thing which is certain is that the price of favourite fishes as seer, pomfret, mackerel, sardine and prawn will skyrocket in the coming days.