Inadequate income because of reduced size and weight of fish as well as dwindling catch is compelling traditional marine fishermen of Odisha coast to migrate outside the State in search of work.
Usually such migration does not occur during September to February, which is a major fishing time. In the past, during the winter months, they used to get larger catch that included big size fish having good market value.
But since 2018, the size and weight of fish has started to go down, said Odisha Marine Resource Conservation Consortium coordinator Mangaraj Panda.
The fishermen are now searching for employment in fishing vessels in Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. Since September this year, around 14,000 marine fishermen from Ganjam, Puri, Jagatsinghpur and Balasore have migrated outside Odisha, he added.
Reduced weight as well as volume of fish catch has affected the incomes of women of the families. “We are facing problems in production of value added products,” said B. Chitamma, managing director of Samudram, a community-based federation of women self-help groups.
Not much demand
The average weight of seer fish caught near Rushikulya rookery and other parts of Odisha coast was earlier over 10 kg. Since 2016-17, their weight has started to come down. “This year, we are getting seer fish of less than 5 kg weight,” said B.Simadri, president of the Ganjam District Fishermen’s Union.
Larger seer fish were sold at around ₹800 per kg and sent outside the State. However, the smaller ones do not have much demand outside the State.
Now bhetki of average weight of around 3 kg to 4 kg are being found on the Odisha coast. A few years ago, they weighed 7 to 8 kg. Earlier, 7- to 8-foot-long eel fish was being caught, but now the size has come down to 3 to 4 feet.
The width of ribbon fish has come down from around 4 inch to 2 inch. Catch of anchovy, sardine and oil sardine too has come down this year. “We have not yet found anchovy this year,” said S. Fakir, a fisherman of Prayagi village.
Anil Mohapatra, a scientist at Gopalpur centre of the Zoological Survey of India, said: “Overfishing may be a major reason. Climatic change too may have affected breeding time of fish.”
