The annual 45-day ban on fishing using mechanised boats gives the breathing room for fishers to take up maintenance work on their boats.
The boat owners service the motors, repair their nets, and paint their boats, so that it could be used for another year in the sea without any problem.
In Nagapattinam, the Kaduvaiyaru harbour is the only place where all the mechanised boats of fishing hamlets from Nagore to Arcottuthurai are anchored during the ban period.
Of the 800 mechanised boats normally anchored at the harbour during the ban period, at least 200 boats need repair.
A piece of land on the shore is being utilised for repairing and painting the boats.
“The lack of designated space at the shore poses hardship. We have to incur additional expenditure for moving the boats from the waters to the repairing area and moving them back to the sea,” say a cross section of fishers.
