A visit to any fish market in Goa during the ban period, one will find abundance of fish sold. Moreover it is roe laden fish and most of it comes from Goan waters.
Monsoons are the best time for fish to procreate as the salinity is low and so our ancestors has the wisdom and would haul their nets before monsoons period to the land dwellings called “Khuid” to carry out mending of the nets and would simply refuse to fish during monsoons. During monsoons alternate fish like dry fish, fish pickles, fish para, prawn balchao were consumed.
The traditional Goan fisherman community would observe certain practices and ethics to ensure the healthy fish population. However, with the traditional practices giving way to modern ones, such ethics are sadly forgotten. Spawning period was considered a sacred and thus was respected by our ancestors and their sacrifices would result in abundance of fish for remaining 10 months of the year but now greed has taken over thus we see overfishing in Goa.
We have surplus trawlers, is there any legislation to control number of trawlers permissible in per kilometre of coast? We see some star hotels along the Goa coast discharging raw sewerage in the sea and thereby destroying the fish breeding grounds.
If the concerned authorities are serious about the ban, the sale of fish laden with roe eggs should be also banned during the fishing ban period to avoid fish famine in future.
