Fight in eastern coast over a sustainable catch
In Tamil Nadu’s (TN) Pudukottai district on India’s eastern coastline, a storm of sorts is brewing. It’s between old rivals, traditional fishermen with small boats and owners of mechanized trawlers. By international standards these aren’t big trawlers, but compared to the boats they are like monsters. Mechanized trawlers are of relatively recent origin starting out in the 1970s and 80s, proliferating the entire Indian coastline.
In Pudukottai the clash between trawlers and traditional boatmen took on an ugly turn in 1978, leading to the ‘three-four’ agreement. Now trawlers go out into sea on three days of a week, while the small boatmen go out for four days. Yet the small traditional boatmen are far outrivaled. Their catch has shrunk.
The culprit is the push nets that trawlers use, scraping the bottom of the sea. It catches not only juvenile fish but a whole range of life forms found on the seabed, including seaweeds. This is destroying precious fish breeding habitat that is telling on the size of the catch. The push nets that the traditional boatmen use are “mini trawls”. Yet, across Pudukottai’s 32 fishing villages, traditional fishermen have decided to stop its use.
It’s not been an easy decision as it affects their livelihood in the short term. But thanks to FAO’s co-management process through its Fisheries Management for Sustainable Livelihoods or FIMSUL project, the traditional fishermen have ceded to the idea of saving the marine ecosystem in the shallow Palk Bay waters, and more importantly, the source of their future sustenance. Trawler owners have been pushed to a corner, and thus the ‘storm’.
Disappearing species
In Pudukottai’s coastal village of Muthukuda Karmegan, 47, who has been a fisherman for over 30 years speaks passionately against the use of push nets. “This (push net) is harmful…it takes away the young fish….Over 20 species of fish have already disappeared,” he says. “It scrapes the bottom of the sea where fish lay their eggs….Now we don’t get lobsters here anymore,” he adds wistfully. Karmegan says he knew of the harm all along but after the outreach meetings with FIMSUL he was fully convinced, “The net should be banned.”
Chinniaiyah, 52 is another fisherman leader who also heads the Pudukottai district fishermen’s union affiliated to the ruling party. “We have to safeguard the sea for the next generation…But we also have to earn our livelihood,” he says. Chinnaiyah voices a common demand when he says, “The government should give us some compensation …” He says the push nets also get entangled with crab nets, destroying them.
Panchavarnam, another fisherman leader from the same village, who has attended several co-management meeting organized by FAO’s partners says, “We now realize what we are losing…within fisheries we have to look at alternate sources of livelihood.” He says most fishermen don’t want their children to be fishermen as fishing has already become unsustainable. He demands job reservation for fishermen’s children in the fisheries, navy, coast guard and other maritime departments.
In nearby R-Pudupattinam village the shoreline is littered with mounds of ‘waste’ from the sea – dead shells, starfish, sponges, sea urchins, coral, and seaweed – a testimony to the damage done by the push nets. An old fisherman weaving a net sums it all, “They have destroyed the entire sea.” Nearby, at a crab-processing unit T.A Kannan a young fisherman says forcefully, “They should ban the push net…It is destroying our crab nets.”
Chinnaiyah, doubling as our guide in the sultry shore, recalls how Fishmarc, the NGO partner, had formed a 10 member committee of traditional boatmen and another ten member team of trawler owners to discuss the issue of sustainable fishing. It was a long journey starting in 2013. “In the beginning the villagers were suspicious…It took us several rounds of discussions to convince the traditional fishermen,” he says.
The trawler owners refuse to comply saying they have invested large sums of money. But once the boatmen give up the net, the trawler owners will be forced to follow suit. While the traditional fishermen co-management committee has agreed to stop the use of push nets, it is still being used.
The committee’s decision, with a few riders for compensation, has been sent to the fisheries department.
“We hope the TN government will impose a ban soon,” they say. The Fisheries department is yet to respond. But once the ban comes into force, the trawlers will have fall in line. If Pudukottai follows the ban, neighbouring districts of TN cannot stay behind for long. Soon, other coastal states too may follow the TN example and the fish population along India’s coastline stands a chance of regeneration.
Berried lobsters in the net
A few hundred kilometers further south, in India’s southernmost district of Kanyakumari facing the Arabian sea, the problem is the same – species depletion. Lobsters, once found in abundance here, was overexploited because of the export market, fetching as much as $25 a kilo. From an annual average of 150 tons the catch has dropped to a mere ten tons.
“What I got in one day, I get in a whole year now,” says an old fisherman who uses traps to catch lobsters that thrive among the rocks. He blames the trawlers. Berried lobsters, a single ‘fish’ holding as many as a 100 thousand eggs, on their way to the deep sea for spawning, are being trapped by trawler nets. And also by the smaller fishermen. They are also catching juvenile lobsters.
The drop in catch is steep. In village Keelamannakudi, seven kilometers short of Kanyakumari, Susai Nayakam is just back from retrieving his net after 48 hours. All he has got is eight lobsters weighing around 1.5 kilos. At current prices he will get around $50 to be shared among five crew members.
After cutting costs his average income is just $5. Yet small traditional fishermen like Nayakam, curiously all of them Roman Catholics, have agreed in principle to return berried lobsters and juveniles to the sea, thanks partly to persuasions from the church that was part of FIMSUL’s outreach team.
They have also agreed to increase the net size from 90 mm to around 110 mm so that juvenile lobsters can live. When asked if he would actually return a berried lobster from his catch to the sea, Nayakam says a bit hesitantly, “Yes…sometimes. …But why should we sacrifice when the trawlers are catching the berried lobsters…?”
The decision to return berried lobsters to sea has not been easy as they weigh more, fetching good money. For implementing partner Kanyakuari District Fishermen Sangam Federation (KDFSF) networking with 48 fishing villages across the district and convincing them was not easy. “If the government issues orders people will listen,” Nayakam and his friends are convinced.
For now the ten member district co-management council, comprising fishermen, scientists, NGOs and officers of the fisheries department, has sent its recommendations to district authorities asking them to enforce a ban. Rubert Jyothi, Assistant Director, Fisheries in Nagercoil, who was closely associated with FIMSUL’s co-management process says, “Definitely…sooner or later the government will issue orders for the ban…” If the lobsters get a new lease of life it will mean better catch and income for the poor fishermen of Kanyakumari.
Ashim Choudhury is a Communications Consultant and author of ‘The Sergeant’s Son’
Ashim Choudhury
Thank You For Your Vote!
Sorry You have Already Voted!
