If the boat owners in Rameswaram face the threat of losing their vessels to the Sri Lankan Navy, the fishworkers, who are scared of arrest and imprisonment in the island nation, are migrating to other places, fishermen leaders here say.
On an average on any fishing day, over 700 trawlers used to venture into the sea from the Rameswaram fishing jetty. This number had come down by half now because of shortage of manpower and due to fear among the owners on the other,” says P. Sesu Raja, leader of a fishermen’s association.
At least 80% of the 5,000-odd workers on the island have moved out to Kerala and Mangaluru. Although they were not assured of their daily wages as they were linked to the catch, unlike assured and fixed wage per trip here, the workers prefer to move out as they could work without any apprehension of arrest and imprisonment, he said.
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As the Lankan authorities have started invoking the provisions of the recently amended Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Act, 1996, and Marine Fisheries (foreign fishing vessels regulation) Act, 1979, the fishermen became scary that they would have to face tough time in the coming days.
Waiting for harbour
“The fishermen will heave a sigh of relief only when the fishing harbour at Mookaiyur and fish landing centre at Kunthukal get ready or if they switch over to deep sea fishing,” he said.
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“It is almost three weeks since I ventured into the sea for fishing,” said A Irudhayaraj, fisherman-cum-trawler owner at Thangachimadam.
There was no point in taking the risk when fishing turned out less prospective and more risky, he said.
After the new fishing season began on June 15, he had set out for fishing only on seven fishing days, he said. The fisheries department officials said they had no statistics regarding the number of fishermen who had “migrated” to Mangaluru and Kerala but admitted that there had been significant drop in number of trawlers setting out for fishing from Rameswaram in the last two months.