Taking stock of the damage suffered by boats anchored at Mandapam, Collector K. Veera Raghava Rao on Tuesday said he would submit a detailed report to the State government seeking relief for fishermen.
On Sunday night, following an IMD warning about Amphan cyclone, fishermen were advised to stay off sea.
The anchored boats, including mechanised, country and fibre vessels, and vallams, were damaged in heavy winds that lasted over an hour.
Some boats suffered damage due to collision with each other, fishermen and boat owners said.
The Collector, accompanied by Deputy Director, Fisheries, M.V. Prabhavathi, Assistant Directors T. Yuvaraj and V. Abdul Khader Jailani and Tahsildars V. Murugavel and Abdul Jabbar, inspected the damages.
Explaining the extent of repairs to be undertaken, fishermen association leaders also appealed to the Collector to get relief for them at the earliest and full compensation as they had no money to spend. Due to the pandemic, fishermen stayed indoors. Barring small and tiny fishermen, a majority of them depended on government relief so far. Spending money from their own pocket for the repairs meant borrowing from private money lenders, said Rayappan, a fisherman.
Huge catch
With Ramanathapuram district topping the fisheries sector in the State, the officials said they would certainly impress upon the government and get full relief for the fishers at the earliest.
The district, which accounted for 237 km of coastal stretch, recorded a huge catch of 1.46 lakh metric tonnes of fish in 2019. As many as 1,500 mechanised boats, 4,500 country boats and other small vessels were used by the fishermen to net the catch, a press release said.
Fishing was a major activity, next to agriculture, in the district, it pointed out.
Port officials hoisted the second cage on Saturday, signalling to fishermen to stay off sea. With the COVID-19 pandemic, the government extended the curfew till May 30 and, hence, the fishermen expected early relief to repair their damaged boats.
