The Chaakara, a phenomenon witnessed along coastal waters of Kerala during the southwest monsoon season, is yet to hit the State. While the fishermen continue to pray for the bounty, scientists are clueless as to whether or when it will strike. Characterised by arrival of shoals of small fishes in calm seas a few kilometres off the coast, the rare occurrence has been a boon to fishermen whose livelihood depends on the quantity of the catch. Fisherfolk used to exult at the queer development, the mood of which had been captured in the film Chemmeen .
Today there is gloom across the coast among fishermen’s habitations, unable to assess the loss if the phenomenon fails to surface.
Chaakara, known as ‘mud bank’ in scientific parlance, has been on the wane during the past few years, says P.K. Dinesh Kumar, Senior Principal Scientist at the National Institute of Oceanography. It used to strike the cost at over 20 locations along the coastal waters in 1980s. The occurrence has been much less over the decades, limited to a few spots in recent years. The phenomenon remains a mystery though studies have established certain theories on the formation, says the scientist who has been engaged in research on the subject.
Explaining the series of activities resulting in mud banks, he says, “high nutrient water is brought into the seas by the rivers to which the fishes get attracted when there is an upheaval in the sea. As the churning of the sea happens in the high waves of the monsoon, mud banks, having diatoms or minute organisms, provide the ideal location for fish searching for food and water with high oxygen content.”
No major catch
Chaakara used to occur at a number of places right from Koyilandy to Kollam earlier. The Chaakara waters remain calm where fishes reach in shoals.
In recent years, though such calm areas with muddy water had been witnessed at quite a few locations, there was no massive assembling of fishes. This year it has been noticed at Challi near Punnapra, though major catch was not recorded. Dr. Dinesh Kumar attributes it to the scarcity of rainwater which is abundant in oxygen, a key element that attracts fish varieties often found a few kilometres off the coast. The development portends a different phase which could be concluded as an impact of the global climate change, the scientist says.
Mud banks with small fish assemblage have been noticed this year along the cost of Alappuzha, but there have been no such sightings along the coast of Ernakulam or other districts yet, according to him.
Global climate change may be having its impact on the monsoon time bounty in the State, says scientist
