Before the ongoing lockdown, the fishing community in Goa was facing a rough time and it appears that their situation has only worsened given the stringent restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
While the commercial fishing industry has been witnessing a free fall as fish has disappeared from the west coast, the only silver lining is that the prolonged lockdown might resurrect the fish population.
With the Fisheries Department banning fishing due to the COVID-19 lockdown, fishing boats of various sizes across Goa are tied up in docks, throwing thousands of fishermen out of work devastating coastal communities altogether.
In fact, a circular issued by Director of Fisheries Dr Shamila Monteiro on March 29 mandated all the mechanized vessels to not to venture in the sea for fishing and to anchor the boats at safe zones along with crew after unloading their catch when they return to the jetties on March 31. Later, it issued another order banning all fishing activity and movement of trawlers.
However for the disgruntled fishing community, from the traditional motorised boat owner to the trawler owner, the question that remains unanswered for most of them is why the government has banned fishing activities at this time.
This decision had led to a lot of opposition from locals as well. Finally, on Saturday, April 11, the Centre amended the COVID-19 lockdown guidelines, allowing fishing, marketing, sale and other activities with a condition to strictly maintain social distancing, it remains to be seen how swiftly the State government acts and modifies its orders to allow the same. It had recently allowed the sale of fish that had been stocked and kept in cold storage with emphasis on hygiene and social distancing.
There is another problem on the horizon and that is what next given that the 61-day-long fishing ban period will begin in June.
Normally after the fishing season comes to an end by May the fishing vessels owners have to secure their boats from small to big either by anchoring at the safe jetties or have to pull them up on the land.
But with scarcity of labourers and the unavoidable practice of social distancing to avoid being coming in close proximity with possible COVID-19 infected persons, it is going to be a huge task for all these fishing vessels owners, be it anchorage or attending to minor or major mechanical and other issues that are mostly undertaken during the monsoon.
What’s worse is that given the fact that the government is facing a financial crisis of its own, no financial package or other incentives are going to come in near future say financial experts.
Sympathizing with the traditional fishermen, activisit Abhijit Prabhudesai, emphasised that, the traditional fishermen should be the focus while formulating future policies by the Department of Fisheries in Goa.
“There is over exploitation of the marine resources, which belongs to all of us, through large-scale industrial fishing, and the Fisheries Department has to seriously lead a crackdown on LED fishing, and bull trawling and other forms of unsustainable fishing have to stop”, Prabhudesai said.
“We are expressing our concerns all the time not to over-exploit the natural resources, may it be fish, minerals or anything else for that matter, or a day is not far when super powers in the world will go to war over food, water and other natural resources, which also includes fish”, Prabhudesai emphasised.
“Even the excessive use of chemical fertilisers, pesticides and detergents together with chemical effluents from industries get washed away into the oceans. If this is not brought under control, it definitely would affect the lives of fishes, from shrimps to the larger sea creatures”, explained Prabhudesai.
Custodio D’ Souza, a traditional fisherman and chairman of ‘Old Cross Fishing Canoe Owners Co-operative society, Vasco blamed the greed of the huge trawler owners for the present state of the barren sea, these are worst days for the traditional fishermen of Goa and if they don’t learn from the past mistakes, there won’t be any fish left in the sea during the years to come” warned D’ Souza.
“However we survive through the year because of the catch we get during the monsoon season”, “we expect the authorities to act in such a way that the marine resources are preserved and saved for posterity” added D’ Souza.
Olencio Simoes, General Secretary of Goenchea Ramponkarancho Ekvot (GRE) and Vice Chairperson of the National Fishworkers’ Forum (NFF), spoke about the demands of the traditional fishermen of Goa.
“GRE has demanded a financial package of rupees 20 thousand to all of the traditional fishermen of Goa, as they are the most affected during the lockdown” he said.
Pointing out that the lockdown period has adversely impacted livelihood of the traditional fishermen community, he said the financial package is justified given how that there will be a fishing ban during the upcoming monsoon too, while also listing out various naturally occurring disasters over the last two years including cyclonic winds.
He also claimed that purse seine trawlers, bull trawling and LED fishing has devastated the fish stock on the west coast of India starting from Gujarat to Kerala and have filtered out the smallest of the smallest species of fish even from the floors of the Arabian sea along this coast while the authorities have kept themselves looking the other way.
“As we speak, there will be hundreds of trawlers fitted with high speed engines and 50 KVA rated power generators to illuminate LED light which attracts fish from even up to 5km radius, they fish from 12 nautical miles off Goa and up to 200 nautical miles, this is happening at the moment. The traditional fishermen is facing the brunt of the lockdown while some big players have found out ways to dodge the ban”, Simoes complained bitterly.
Whatever may be the argument and the counter argument but the Arabian sea on the entire coast of west India is facing fish famine for last couple of years, the effect is so much such that hundreds of fishermen both traditional and the small sized trawler owners have stopped venturing into the sea as they say that it is not possible to gain any catch as there is no fish in the sea up to where they can reach.
There was also large consensus that the Fisheries Department has to pull up its socks and act urgently.
Speaking about the department, Simon Pereira, a former president of the Vasco trawler owners association also observed that when the lockdown was announced, certain things were not very clear and this led to confusion.
“Later, one order was issued stating there was total stoppage and directing boats to anchor, but there were certain trawlers which were already in deep sea and were out of contact. This communication gap between the trawler owners and the workers also became the problem.
Pereira further added that workers, helpers who migrants working on these fishing boats suffered along with the trawler owners and due to the complete shutdown, there was food supply scarcity as well. Essential grocery items became unavailable. And workers being a responsibility of the trawler owners, they had to suffer by shelling out money from their pockets to give salaries to these workers and helpers. Each trawler owners had to spend almost 4 to 5 lakh to give salaries to the workers and helpers on their boats.
“I feel the government should think about us and come up with relief package for trawler owners also,” Pereira added.
Speaking about the financial package,
Jose Philipe D’souza, president of All Goa Fishing Boat Owners Association (AGFBOA) said that he had appealed to Chief Minister Pramod Sawant about this. “The fishing boat owners have faced loses during this statewide lockdown period. All boats are anchored at Vasco jetty. There are thousands of labourers who are doing manual job on fishing boats, and during some medical problems, they complain to the boat owners. Many of them who are from other States have got stuck in Goa due to statewide lockdown,” he added.
He went on to elaborate how the fishing industry had suffered during the lockdown period.
“Many people have deprived of fish. On Purse seine boats, there are around 40 workers who remain in the sea for a few days. The total salary of these labourers per boat goes upto 5 to 6 lakh, which the owner had to pay. We suffered last year for three months due to the cyclonic conditions and now we are suffering due to the lockdown. Common people have suffered because there was shortage of fish supply and more demand and people had to purchase fishes for exorbitant prices. Once the government allows boats into the sea for fishing activities then people will get fish at reasonable prices,” he added.
He further stated that he had asked the Fisheries Minister to call a joint meeting of the fishermen associations and bodies to decide on fishing activities so that people can get fish. “I am of the opinion that social distance and guidelines put up by the government need to be followed strictly. Precaution is better than cure. I feel that the CM should consider our demand of the financial assistance to fish boat owners. We need to support the government in this testing time,” he concluded.
Another area of concern is the losses suffered by those involved in fishing. Further, the price of fish being sold has increased a lot compared to the regular season rates. It some places, it has even increased by 100 per cent and that’s a certainly a pinch out of one’s pockets and savings.
