Fishermen from Visakhapatnam who are already suffering huge losses due to the frequent cyclones in the Bay of Bengal, face another major challenge during the sunny days. Despite getting a good catch, there is no assurance that the fishermen walk home with enough profits in their pockets. Lack of cold storage units in Visakhapatnam and surrounding areas is forcing majority of fishermen to resort to distress sale of fish which otherwise could have fetched them good profits.
There are about 600 mechanised boats being operated from Visakhapatnam in addition to 100 trawlers/mini trawlers and a couple of hundreds of traditional fishing boats. During the peak season particularly after the fishing ban period during May and also rainy season, each boat returns to the shore with a catch weighing about 20 tonne. During off season, the catch is only around five tonne. The fishermen lament that if only there was a cold storage unit, they could have saved some fish caught during the peak season and sold them during the off season.
“Just imagine if a majority of 600 fishing boats return to the shore at once. As the availability of the fish is more and it cannot be stored, we are forced to sell it at a cheaper price. A good catch which fetches around `350-400 per basket requires to be sold for about half the price when the supply is more,” laments S Kanaka Raju, a fisherman.
According to an estimate, the mechanised boat owners spend about `2 lakh towards fuel during a 15-day trip into the sea apart from other expenses like labour and boat maintenance.
Due to lack of cold storage facility in the region, some fishermen use crushed ice to store part of their catch and sell off the remaining fish. But a majority of fishermen who cannot afford to purchase ice, sell their catch on the same day. Sources said that it is the middlemen and also exporters who gain from the situation by purchasing the fish cheap and sell it in the market for high prices.
Ch Satyanarayana Murthy, president of Visakha Dolphin Boat Owners Association, said that lot of promises were made and proposals were put up to establish cold storage units but nothing was realised. “Only exporters and a couple of private persons have these cold storage units. While the exporters obviously use the facility for their needs, we cannot afford to hire private cold storage units,” he said.
A senior officer of Fisheries department who did not want to be named said that though proposals were put up several years ago and the officials are pursuing every year, the government was not responding due to lack of funds.
He said that there are proposals to establish at least two cold storage units to meet the requirements of fishermen during last year.
Even chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy who visited Chepaluppada near Visakhapatnam in October this year, promised to sanction a cold storage unit but sources in the fisheries department said that no such effort was made so far blaming the Samaikyandhra agitation for the delay.