The boats, which spend eight to 10 days deep in the sea, usually move in groups and are in regular touch with each other, said Nithin Kumar, Mangaluru Trawler Boat Meenugarara Sangha president. He finds the missing boat incident “a strange one”.
Mr. Kumar, who has been in the industry for over two decades, said he does not recall previous incidents of this nature on the Karnataka coast. However, some five years ago, a boat driver from Tamil Nadu went missing, along with a boat from Mangaluru, and there was no trace of them. There were no fishermen on the boat. He suspects that the boat could have been used for human trafficking, from Tamil Nadu to Australia.
Trawlers’ routine
Depending upon the size and engine capacity, some deep-sea trawlers — like the missing Suvarna Thribhuja — carry enough diesel, food and ice to store fish for their planned stay, Mr. Kumar said. Bigger trawlers carry up to 6,000 litres of diesel and have up to 10 workers on board.
These boats, Mr. Kumar said, go up to Ratnagiri and sometimes close to Mumbai in the north and till Kochi in the south in search of a good catch. They trawl the seabed for two hours and then segregate the catch. Once the storage is full, they head back home. Most of these fishermen are hired workers from Tamil Nadu and northeastern States.
There are about 4,000 trawlers and purse seine boats on the Karnataka coast.
