As the sun’s rays shimmered over the sea, Baren Khurai was fastening long jute ropes to the anchors to make them ready before venturing into the sea. Khurai resides at a stone’s throw away from the Bay of Bengal, in Dahasunamui village in Deshapran administrative block of Purba Medinipur district, around 180 km from Kolkata.
The 65-year-old has been fishing for the past four decades, but laments that the catch has been dwindling with each passing day, deepening concerns about his livelihood. We used to catch around 10 quintals of fish by spending almost a week at sea nearly two decades ago but now it has fallen to just 10% of it, Khurai said.
It is becoming increasingly difficult for a group of 8 to 10 people to venture into the sea and survive on paltry returns, said Khurai. Our children are no longer interested in fishing and are moving to other states to work as labourers.
With bottom trawling in banned near-shore areas wiping out aquatic life, small and marginal fishermen in East Medinipur district of West Bengal struggle to sustain a livelihood. While some switch occupations, others work in the same trawlers that affect their traditional livelihood.
The gigantic trawlers operating at the sea do bottom trawling illegally and leave nothing for us. They destroy the ecology, but nothing is done to stop them, said Khurai. Khurai’s situation epitomizes the pressing issues faced by the marginal fishermen of Purba Medinipur (East Midnapore) district.
The fishermen return with lesser catch nowadays because bottom trawlers use a heavy fishing net which is dragged along the seabed to catch fish and prawns. According to environmentalists, bottom trawling damages the ecologically-sensitive sea floor.
It is a very destructive process as it virtually bulldozes the seabed and destroys the entire habitat and the aquatic forms that survive on it, said Pradip Chatterjee, convener of the National Platform of Small Scale Fish Workers (Inland) and an environmentalist.
The cod end of the net is small but plays an active role in chasing the catch and destroying the seabed, Chatterjee said. The trawlers keep only commercial species and dump the rest of the catch that cannot be sold.
Bottom trawling is prohibited up to 12 nautical miles from the shore. But no one follows the rules. The administration has been a mute spectator in implementing rules. Trawlers fish even near the river mouth, ruining the marginal fishermen, said Debasish Shyamal, Secretary of National Fish Workers Forum.
There is also the concern of food security as the trawlers collect only the export quality varieties and discard the rest, said Shyamal. The fish that could have been served on a platter goes waste. It reduces the catch for the small fishermen.