Scientists bring good tidings for fishermen

Predict improvement in fish population

The tsunami devastation continues to haunt the fisherfolk along the Southern coast. Fishermen along the Kerala coast from Vizhinjam to Azheekkal and Colachel and Muttom, along the South Tamil Nadu coast, are still a worried lot because of the low catch.

However, scientists involved in deep sea research here had good news for them when they listed out the details of their study in front of the fishermen on the improvement of the scenario here today.

The South Indian Federation of Fishermen Societies (SIFFS) and Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) jointly organised an interaction with scientists here and the fisherfolk who had many doubts to be cleared.

Explaining the tsunami phenomenon in detail, CSP Iyer, a senior scientist with Regional Research Laboratory in Thiruvananthapuram, stressed the need to be confident saying that good times were to come soon.

He said, "Though the primary production comprising phytoplankton and zooplankton biomass had depleted drastically, especially in Vizhinjham and Colachel due to the impact of tsunami, studies conducted in January and May 2005 showed a gradual increase in their presence. Further studies conducted in January this year, a year after the disaster struck, showed further improvement in the scenario. This is encouraging as fish population would also increase when such a thing happens."

There had been only around 10 per cent dip in overall fish catch in Kerala, he said, quoting official figures. This was, however, disputed by fisherfolk assembled at the interactive workshop. Robert, a Thiruvananthapuram-based fisherman said that most of the fisherfolk had stayed away from fishing for about four months as there wasn't even an average catch.

Allaying fears that fish situation would not improve in the near future, Iyer added that the balance was indeed coming back. N P Kurien, scientist with the Centre for Earth Science Studies, said that studies should progress and aim at creation of a tsunami inundation model making use of the samples collected pre and post-tsunami.