With rising pressure on food producing land resources, an increasing share of future food supply needs, especially of developing countries like

India may have to be met from fisheries. The present study focuses on the prevailing problems connected to the fishing populations in our rural

coastal regions and the crucial socioeconomic problems affecting peace and stability in our country

Nammalwar, P

Prakasam, T R

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Present Status and in the Marine Problems of Fishermen Fishing Industry P. Nammalwar and 'tI. R. Prakasam Department of Zoology. University of Madras, MadHls-S. With rising pressure on food pro-ducing land resources, an increasing -share of future food supply needs, ,especially of developing countries like India may have to be met from fish-·eries. The present study focuses on the prevailing problems connected to -the fishing populations in our rural ·coastal regions and the crucial socio-economic problems affecting peace and -stability in our country, The total fishermen population of ·jnd ia was about 55.8 million, represent-ing about one percent of the total population of the country. Along the coast line live around 32.8 million fis-her folk. About one million fishermen of the country have distinct tradition of their own. Th ey belong to al l the major religion s namely Hindu, Christian and Islam and to several communities whicn differ from state to state In most countries, fishing makes a small contribution to national income. Large segments of t he population in the coastal areas of our country de-pend for their livelihood exclusivelY on fisheries. As human food, f ish and shell fish are considered exceptionally valuable , february, 1979 .. from a nutritional stand point, primari-ly because it contains a high percent -age of readily digestable animal pro-teins. Among the countries bordering the Ind ian ocean, India is the largest and it countributes to about 45 per-cent of the fish production from the region. The fisheries of the countrty is in the transitional phase from the traditional to the modern ways of exp-loitation. On the exploitation of common property, fishery resources are threa-tened by 'over fishing'. Regulation of a type leading to a reduction in t he number of fishing units seems desi-rable to conserve valuable resources, fore-stall economic difficulties and re-duce the likelihoo~ of political clashes. In Tamil Nadu, recently, there has been clashes between catamaran oper-ators and mechan ised boat operato rs, due to the mechanised boats operating in areas which are traditionally fis hed by Catamaran. Besides creating a law and order problem the increased nu m-ber of mechanised boats of 30 and 32 feet would further aggravate the si tu-ation. It is therefore necessary to plan the commissiofoling of boats fo r tr,e future· in a manner which would ren -der the boats wi th longer operational 2 ' { range. so that the conflict between mechanised boat operators and cata-maran operators would be minimised or avoided. The use of new techniques to modify the resources of the seas holds out some promise for increasing the fish crop in India. India has a coast line of 6.500 kms. offering consider-able scope for the establishment of fi sheries and is ranked at present seventh among fishing nations of the world as far as fish production is concerned. The Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea abounding in fishing grounds. gulfs and bays all along the coast and a large number of islands with their mangrove swamps and coral reefs are rich sour-ces of marine fish. Fishing in Indian seas is generally confined to a narroW coastal belt. 11-16 km. width and the richer offshore and deep-sea water are practically un-exploited. This is largely due to the in3dequacy of fishing craft and gear in use. Except for the mechanised craft recently introduced in some parts of India. fishing craft and gear in use throughout the country are indigenous. non-mechanised and locally built. Th ey have been designed to suit local conditions. On the east coast. the sea is rough and the c:>ast is surf beaten and the landing places are very few except the open coast. Consequently the chief craft used are the floating raft or the catamaran and non-rigid masula boat· On the west coast the sea is calm except during south-west monsoon when operations are almost suspended. and small canoes and large rigid and strongly constructed boats are operated. A large have been 28 variety of specialised AetS developed for capturing different types of fishes and most of the fishing units are of a high oper-ational efficiency in the inshore waters. The development of the Indian fishing fleet has proceeded along two lines. viz: the gradual mechanisation and modi-fication of indigenous boats and the' introduction of new mechanised boats suitable for new fishing methods. The mechanisation of available indigenous· boats is only a transitional phase and the real improvement of the Indian fishi<lg fleet lies in the field of new de sign s. Emphas is in the marine fisheries sector was on the mechanisation of indigenous crafts. introduction of me-chanised fishing boats. improvements. of fishing gears. establishment of infrastructure facilities such as processing plants. cold storages and landing and' berthing facilities of boats. processing .. I ransportation and marketing. These' programmes backed by the discovery-of rich fishing grounds in the inshore waters paved the way for the establish-ment of a seafood export industry for' the welfare of fisherman and to the· country. Research on valious aspects of marine fisheries and exploration of their resources gave fu rth er impetus to· the development of th~ Indian fisheries. which stressed on an increased pro-duction of fish to meet the protein' requiremant in the Indian diet and, improvement of socia-economic con-ditions of fishermen; a nd realisation of enhanced foreign exchange earnings through the export of selected marine products. Extension of fishing to under and unexploited areas. diversification of fishing and fish products. and im-provement of traditional fisheries are the other core programmes of develop-mental strategy taken up during the' period. Developmerl\ of technologies· Seafood Export Journa' in the culture of selected v.rities of iishes, prawns, shell fishes and sea weeds of commercial importance formed .an important activity of marine fishery research. These technologies shou ld be made available to th e rural fish ermen and the government m,y offer them "Some piece of land in the coastal 'backwater areas with some financial 'help to start coastal aquaculture in non-seasonal months. Although fantastic advances have ·been made in fishing technology, pra-ctically it has not reached the poor fisherman . For example, the ecosoun-·ders used in detection of fish shoals are on ly in experimental stage to iish-ermen. Today thousands o f mechani s-ed boats are in fishing operation . But ,hey do not have arrangements to make fruitful use of their effo rt . The old customery way of detection by casting ·the net is the only resort that they adopt. By luck, if the grounds are located, other boats crow d over that area to filter the water. This is due to many reasons (1) fishermen do not rea lise the importance of the de-vice (2) the cost of the instrument and lack of expert hands for it s ope-ration (3) the fact that the expendi-ture they have to incur in detection of shoal is not minimized even by the use oi the device (expenditure for running the boats). The problem is definitely more crude as it reaches the fisherman with Catamarans and c~lOoes. Another problem is the difficulty in passing on the information regarding the existence of the fishery resources to the fisherman. Although to some extend, fishing forecasts are made po -ssible, it does not have practical ou t-comes. If the fishermen are to have the forecast as is done fo r weather, it could have worked .out advantageously. February 1979 ORIENT TO ORIENT NEW TOYO SEAFOODS COMPANY, LTD. IMPORT ;] FROZEN SHRIMPS :J LOBSTER HEAD ::::J FROG LEGS o OTHER MARINE PRODUCTS EXPORT o FISHING TRAWLERS ::::J FREEZING PLANTS ::::J ALL KINDS OF FISHING GEARS AND EQUIPMENTS OFFER ALL TECHNICAL KNOW-HOW Address: ISHIKAWA BLDG .. 20-1 , 2 Chome, Misaki - cho - Chiyoda - ku TOKYO, JAPAN. Telephone : Cable Address: 264-4373 "Newseafood Tokyo" 262- 4408 or 402-7830 Res: "Banerji Tokyo" Tel.x: Newfood J 25220 From a survey o f Kerala coast during recent years, it could be observed that fishi ng season' in the different locations of the coast has been much scattered. Also .during recent years, it was evi-denced that fishing boats had' good catches (juring the monsoon period s. From these, it could only be said th at the fishing season is ill-defined or rather scattered This has become an additional problem faci ng the fishermen as they have to keep a watch during the whole year for their catches. However, here ' al'so practical difficult;es like risks involved in launch ing into the rough sea cannot be ignored . The extension wings of all th e marine fisheries research institutes by way of demonstration of diversified fishing methods and publication of the results o f th e' marine fishery reSOurces survey could. bring ' the knowledge to the fishermen thereby to benefit t"e country. Although the ex isting extens-ion services help to disseminate the technologv deve loped in the country to the fishermen, fish farmers and the industry to certain extent. a well plan-ned . ,system of ,extension both in . the state ' and nationa l - level is to be organised and strengthened to co·ordi-nate research , developmental and industrial activ ities so as to make the best use of the resou rces. Most developed countries have at· tempted to mainta in the l iving standards of fishermen and the ability of their fishing industri es t,o compete effectively by 'providi ng price supports, subsidies' tariff protection and sundry fi scal 30 advan tages . Assistance in develop-mental efforts has usually been based on programm es for market expansion increased prdo,-,ctivity, exploration of f ishing grounds and research on new gear and fi sh ing methods. With a view to promoting integrated fisheries ectiviti es, fisheries corporations were established in the country and subsequently all the mariti me states also org anised fisheries corporations. The working of the corporations include commercial fishing activities such as fishing operations, ice production, processing, storage. ma rketing and can· struct ion and repair of f ishing vessels. To provide assistance to fi shermen who are the actual producers, fisheries co-operative system in the country was organised. These socieites are engaged in a variety of activities such as fishing operations, marketing and providing facilities like short term loans for the purchase of fishing implements. Besides· the subsidies provided by the central and state governments on various items of fishing requisites, credit facilities for the promotion of the industry are-provided by the commercial banking. institutions. Several factors such as low social status, poor economic conditions, illiter-acy. heavy leaning on middle men, traditional fishing equipments and met-hods of fishing low production rate-and income influence the socia-economic onditions of fishelmen, Though the answ er to the problems of the fisher-men may be the fishery co-operatives, much has yet to be done in the matter of actual management, • Seafood Export Journa ~ 

Present status and problems of fishermen in the marine fishing industry

http://eprints.cmfri.org.in/7559/1/590-SEA_FOOD_EXPORT_JOURNAL__1979.pdf

Present status and problems of fishermen in the marine fishing industry

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