With hardly three weeks left for the annual trawl ban, the fisheries sector in the State is teetering on the brink of a tipping point.
As per reports, more than 500 trawlers were scrapped during the last one-and-a-half years rendering hundreds of fishers jobless. A large percentage of the traditional fleet too has stopped venturing into the sea and currently the sector is in the throes of a severe livelihood crisis.
“I bought my boat in 2017 when the diesel price was around ₹50. Member of a modest fisher family, I had to mortgage my house to raise the money. Five years down the road, we live in a rented house and my boat was sold to scrap dealers last month. I had invested over ₹20 lakh and the scrap price was ₹6 lakh. The vessel was seaworthy when I scrapped it and the average life span of a boat is around 20 years. Operational costs have tripled over the last few years and many of us are forced to scrap the boats,” says Paul, a boat owner.
