MARGAO: After three weeks of bad weather, ramponnkars (traditional fishermen)led by Jesus D’Costa from Cavelossim netted a bumper catch of pomfrets, mackerels and other Goan favourites on Thursday morning.
However, they lamented that such big catches are few and far apart, and they still need to rely on such luck to survive, as they receive no support from the fisheries department.
“After a bad weather period for nearly 3 weeks, today’s catch was really something that these traditional fishermen were happy about. They are also able to fetch good prices for their catch during the Ganesh festival since Hindus don’t eat fish,” said Roy Barretto, a resident of Cavelossim, who was with the fishermen at Mobor Beach while they were transferring the fish from the nets to the traditional baskets.
“Jesus D’Costa is a traditional fisherman and uses only traditional methods called Rampornn. Today there are only four such Rampornns left in Cavelossim Village, compared to 40 years ago. Rampornn is hard, risky and labour-intensive work but still, these fisherfolk make sure that you get fresh fish for your Goan curry,” he added.
“There is no help from the government’s side to revive and protect traditional fishermen and their livelihood as they have other ideas to sell our beaches to corporates and unsustainable mechanised fishing with LED lights and bull trawling,” alleged Barretto.
To make matters worse, the coastal police do not have any functioning boats to carry out patrolling and have to rely on boats from the Fisheries Department, Coast Guard and local fishermen in cases of emergencies, he added.
