RAMNAD: Fish vendor Kori Mohamed has released up to five lakh baby crabs in the sea near Mandapam to boost the local crab population -all for the benefit of fishermen.
Mohamed’s livelihood depends on procuring fish and crabs from fishermen in the market to sell. However, in a purely altruistic move, he decided to select the pregnant crabs and keep them in a cement tub near his house on the seashore at Mandapam. The mother crabs would lay a copious number of eggs which would hatch and grow into baby crab within ten days. He would then release the ‘mother’ crabs into the sea as an act of mercy.
Mohamed decided to help fishermen soon after he launched this innovative method. He constructed nine tubs near his house and since then has already left three lakh baby crabs in the sea near Mandapam last year.
He does not make any profit for this service and even spends his own money, including procuring fodder to rear the crabs in the tubs for few days. The government’s 45-day ban on fishing in the sea to boost the fish population is an added advantage to Mohamed’s unique initiative. Kori Mohamed told Express that the service should be useful for fishermen and the crabs would be caught anywhere in the sea.