On Day 1, poor catch disappoints fishermen

TIRUCHY: Fishermen, who ventured into sea after 61 days of ban, returned to shore on Thursday with poor catch. They claimed that they may continue to face severe financial problems if the condition prevails.

After the completion of 61 days of fishing ban, the fishermen from the region ventured into sea early on Wednesday with a hope of good catch. But, they kept returning to the shores of Nagapattinam, Tiruvarur, Thanjavur and Pudukottai districts with poor catch.

According to Periyasamy, member of the fishermen association in Sethubavachatram in Thanjavur, they could get less quantity of export quality fishes like prawns, crabs, squid and cuttlefish. Despite there being less quantity, they sold at just Rs 300 per kg against the usual cost of Rs 600 per kg.

“While calculating the expenditure, including, diesel, maintenance of boats and the wages for the fishers, the first day was unfortunate for all of us as we are forced to face a huge loss. But, we are optimistic of a good catch in the coming days,” Periyasamy said. He also said that the wind flow was not supportive to the fishers and that too was one of the reasons for the poor catch.

Udayakumar, a fisherman from Akkaraipettai in Nagapattinam said, during the first week, after the ban period, the fishermen used to get a good catch. “But, this time, we could not get enough to even compensate us for the repair work we had undertaken for our boats and nets during the ban period.

He predicted that there would be a fortunate season for them when the monsoon sets in as the climatic conditions at the sea would change.

Meanwhile, anticipating good varieties of fishes, the people converged in coastal areas since Thursday morning. However, they left without purchasing them due to less availability of fish.

In the meantime, the officials from the Fisheries Department conducted a surprise inspection in the boats whether the fishermen had used banned nets.