Fishing season begins

With the 47-day fishing holiday coming to an end on Tuesday, trawlers and mechanised boat operators in Andhra Pradesh today ventured into the sea. About 75 big and small trawlers and 6,000 mechanised boats are engaged in fishing in the state.

These operators observe fishing holiday from April 15 to May 31 every year following a central government order, which bars them from taking up fishing activity during that period to conserve the fishing grounds in the Indian seawaters.

Last year, the industry lost heavily as the catches were low and also bad weather reduced the number of fishing days. However this season, they are optimistic. “During the last fishing season, we lost 60-70 fishing days because of frequent cyclones and prolonged bad weather conditions. This time, the weather conditions look favourable,” said YGK Murthy, president of the Association of Indian Fishery Industry.

The Meteorological Department has forecast early Southwest monsoon while the recent pre-monsoon rains will drop the temperatures of sea waters, Murthy said, adding these conditions would help in getting good catch.

About 75 small and big trawlers and 800-900 mechanised boats operate from Visakhapatnam fishing harbour. Of this, about 60 per cent trawlers and 30-35 per cent boat operators have started their voyage and the remaining would venture in the next one or two weeks.

Murthy said a few mechanised boat operators had delayed taking up the activity because of financial problems. Each boat requires Rs 75,000 to Rs 1 lakh for taking up fishing.