Fish catch at Rushikulya rookery coast in Ganjam district in Odisha has gone down in recent months and the fishermen here are linking it with non-occurrence of mass nesting of Olive Ridley turtles at this coast this year.
Rushikulya rookery coast is a major mass nesting site of endangered Olive Ridleys on Indian coastline. However, this year Olive Ridleys did not make nests here although thousands of them had gathered near the coast for mating. Since generations marine fishermen of this region have protected these turtles because of their beliefs. According to Rabindranath Sahu of Rushikulya Sea Turtle Protection Committee (RSTPC), marine fishermen believe these turtles to be incarnation of Lord Vishnu and never harm them in sea or at the beach during their mating and mass nesting. “Elders of fishermen community believe sighting these turtles is a good omen for better fish catch,” he added.
Hadi Behera, a marine fisherman of Purunabandha, said he has observed that when large number of Olive Ridleys arrive here for nesting, they have good fish catch. But the catch drops when these marine turtles do not turn up. According to him during the past few months they are not getting good catch from sea and this year mass nesting of Olive Ridleys has not occurred at this coast.
B. Chitamma, adviser of ‘Samudram’, a community backed ‘producer company’ of traditional marine fisherwomen, also said that the fish yield has gone down at the coast this year. According to her, this year fishermen are unable to get even good catches of oil sardines, which were abundantly available during past years.
According to experts, till now there is no scientific study regarding fish population near the coast and mass nesting of Olive Ridleys. “Usually it is observed that availability of fish in sea increases near Rushikulya rookery when the turtles’ mating season in December and continues till eggs hatch and hatchlings return to the sea,” said Mangaraj Panda, a social activist working with marine fishermen of Odisha coast.
According to him there must be some link between fish population and the nesting. “This study would be a great help in protecting livelihood of marine fishermen and intricacies of the marine environment,” Mr Panda added.
