The catch on the first day of fishing after the end of 45-day ban period was relatively less, but the fishermen here began the new fishing season on a happy note as the Sri Lankan navy guarding the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) was lenient.
About 7,000 fishermen who had ventured into sea on 1,400 trawlers for fishing on Friday night from the jetties of Rameswaram, Mandapam and Pamban had spent two nights and a day before they returned on Sunday morning.
After confining themselves to Indian waters on Friday night, the fishermen crossed the IMBL by a few nautical miles to fish in the Lankan waters mainly to catch prawns, but made a quick retreat fearing arrest by the Lankan navy, the fishermen said.
The Lankan navy, which was present at the IMBL, made a few chases but did not make any attempt to arrest the fishermen or confiscate their boats, said Irudhayam, a fisherman from Thangachimadam.
“We fished with a sense of fear and the days ahead are going to be difficult,” Mr. Irudhayam told The Hindu .
This time, the catch of prawn was 70 to 170 kg, fishermen said. There was also decline in the catches of crab, ‘kanavai’ and other species, they said.
Fishermen leader P. Sesu Raja attributed the less catch to allowing country boat fishermen to fish during the ban period. The ban imposed to allow breeding of fishes but it failed to serve the purpose as country boat fishermen were allowed to fish.
Tuticorin
Similarly, almost three-fourths of the fishing fleet returned with poor catch in Tuticorin, according to C. Parthiban, president, Tuticorin Mechanised Boat Fishermen Labourers’ Association.
Normally, after resumption of fishing following a long break, about one-and-a-half tonnes to two tonnes of fish would be caught by every boat. But now, the catch came down to 300 kg to 400 kg a boat. It was worse as far as catch of prawns and squid was concerned.
Usually, prawn catch would be around five tonnes on the first day of the new fishing season, but its catch shrank to about 500 to 600 kg on the whole.
Out of the 241 mechanised boats from Tuticorin fishing harbour, 213 boats were engaged in fishing, he said.
