Thousands of fishermen living along the coast of the district are going through tough times largely because of uncontrolled trawling in the outer seas by foreign vessels. A large number of boats are lying idle at Ponnani and Beypore, the two harbours in the district’s southern and northern ends. The fishermen said the presence of foreign trawlers in Indian waters had badly affected the fish wealth. Our catch has considerably fallen. We don’t go fishing these days. It’s a really sad condition, said K.K. Koya, a srank in a fishing boat at Ponnani. Similar sentiments were echoed by the fishermen at Koottayi, Tanur, Parappanangadi and Chaliyam. They said a fall in their catch in recent times had hit their lives badly. They said although the government imposed a 47-day trawl ban, it did not provide any help to the fishermen living along the coasts. They said the trawl ban was rather meant to help the big catchers, and not the poor. The Matya Thozhilali Federation took out a march at Tirur on Friday, demanding free ration for fishermen suffering because of shortage in fish. The federation demanded that large trawl vessels should be banned in the waters off the State’s coast. Inaugurating the march, CPI district secretary P.P. Suneer blamed the Central government for allowing uncontrolled trawling in the waters, which used to provide bread and butter for thousands of poor fishermen from the State’s coast. What gain do we have by allowing foreign trawlers to fish from our waters? It is rather depriving our livelihood. Banning them is the only way out, said K. Shabeer, a fisherman from Ponnani.
2016, The Hindu