Diesel engines are sputtering, cranes swinging, and ice blocks are thudding onto decks after 45 days of silence enforced by the annual deep-sea fishing ban in Chennai’s Kasimedu fishing harbour. Big trawlers have started lining the jetty again, symbolising the start of a new season, where the sea will decide the fortune of hundreds of fishers from our coastline.
Moinuddin, one such fisher, returns to the harbour after nine days at the sea, fishing on a medium sized trawler. He says, “How long we stay out depends on oil (used to power the boat), ice (for storing the catch), and the weather.” Explaining the layout of his medium-sized trawler that can last upto 10 days in the sea, he adds, “The lower part is only for fish. Blue plastic drums stacked floor to ceiling. The top deck is our home. Behind the wheelhouse, there’s a 2x4 feet space for a kitchen (they carry ration to cook here). No sleeping room. No toilet. No bathroom.” For a group of four to ten men, the entire deck doubles up into a bedroom, dining hall, and workplace, all in one.
The beginning of this season has been favourable for Moinuddin and his group of fishers. Their nets came up heavy with a shark and leopard stingray, each weighing over a hundred kilograms. “Pulling that in is not easy,” Moinuddin laughs, growing serious almost instantly. “Four to five men are needed. Sometimes the fish shakes the whole boat. Sometimes the net tears. For big catch, we need special nets. It’s dangerous work.” But heavy fish alone isn’t all the danger. “The weather is our biggest enemy,” he says. “If the sea turns bad, it’s life or death out there.”
While life has come back to our sea, the economics on shore seem to have shifted with the lift of the ban. “Lots of small fish now,” Moinuddin explains. “It’ll take time for them to grow big. So rates have dropped 15-20%.” in the fish market. But Kasimedu buzzes on. Trawlers seem to be unloading endlessly, auctions are being held, while families are waiting to make their purchase.
Moinuddin even slips in a truth that buyers may not want to hear: “The fish you are getting today could be 10 days old. We keep it in ice so it looks fresh.” And for many of these fish to reach the market today, fishers like Moinuddin gambled in the endless expanse of blue waters — for the sea, in his own words, can mean either “life or death”.