“Cochin Fisheries Harbour is deserted for a month as fishermen of Thoothoor belt (in Kanyakumari district) have not gone fishing. Only fishermen from the eight coastal villages in this region are engaged in deep sea fishing from Cochin Fisheries Harbour (CFH),” Kochi MLA KJ Maxi told TOI here on Friday. The MLA was silently leading a 26-member delegation comprising trade unionists and fish traders from Kochi. They visited families of missing fishermen door-to-door in Eraiviputhenthurai, Vallavilai, Chinnathurai and Thoothoor and comforted them. They had also come to analyse the situation of affected families and try to support them in the best possible way. “We came to know that six boats of Vallavilai with around 70 fishermen are missing or feared dead. They are one among us as they are the ones who are directly involved with the CFH on a day-to-day basis,” he said. Maxi said that more than 2,000 labourers at the CFH have directly lost their livelihood as fishermen of Thoothoor abstained from fishing post Cyclone Ockhi. “In addition to the several crore rupees loss in business in terms of fish unloaded at CFH, local business to the tune of Rs 50 lakh in terms of consumables is affected every day,” he added. Consumables include purchase of provisions and several tones of ice apart from nets and other raw materials and gear used for fishing for every boat engaged in deep sea fishing, as each of their fishing trip range from 15 days to 40 days. Fishermen of Thoothoor region said that as many as 615 of the nearly 850 mechanised boats from here operate from harbours in Kerala.