In order to fillet the shingala, or the thinspine sea catfish, you need to glide the knife past its bulbous rib cage to the firm lower backbone and then come around again, gently cutting away at the flesh to disengage the bones. For the long and svelte karli, or wolfherring, one has to carefully remove the pin bones with special tweezers. These are some of the skills that come in handy after a day spent acquiring fresh catch from one of Mumbai’s over 30 fishing villages.
The karli is from the bustling Sunday fish market at Khar Danda, a little fishing village at the northern end of one of Mumbai’s most well-known seaside promenadesCarter Road. Egrets crowd the shaft along the roof of the market, with a few gutsy ones hopping around dangerously close to the fish stalls. It is usually a cacophony of mongers talking, yelling and selling in various pitches. Apart from the Famous Five quintet of surmai, rawas, pomfret, bombil and bangda, one can find eel, catfish, live crabs, shrimp of various sizes, squid, clams, sardines, anchovies, and more. Due to its peculiar topography, sandy beach and long jetty, Khar Danda is still identified by its small blue and orange fishing boats and long lines of bombil drying on poles. Yet, there is a threat looming large over the future of this villagethe proposed 29.2km-long coastal road by the municipal corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) could destroy their very way of life. The road, which will connect to the Bandra-Worli Sea Link, will eat through the mangroves at Khar Danda, an important fish-breeding site, threatening the marine ecology of the area.
It is a very different scene at Versova koliwada, a few kilometres north of Khar Danda, from where we got our catch of fresh shingala. The once sleepy, centuries-old fishing village across Madh Fort is a bustling commercial fishing hub, its long jetty a docking point for large multi-day trawlers. Although the trawlers have brought new affluence to the community, things are far from idealeach day, the boats need to go further and further out to sea as the waters around Versova are polluted with untreated industrial effluents. An article published in the Hindustan Times in June 2017 reported that the quality of water at the mouth of Versova Beach was among the dirtiest in Mumbai, with pollution levels 13 times above the normal limit, according to an assessment by the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board. The sea washes up dead fish, along with tonnes of garbage, on to the beach.
This is a scenario in which the fishermen with their small engine boats have little or no place. It is up to the multi-day trawlers, with their large engines and giant nets, to go out into the deeper waters for catch. What comes along with the bigger fish, however, is a large number of by-catch and undersized juvenile fish, which poses a huge threat to the future of fisheries.
Khar Danda and Versova are but two of Mumbai’s fishing villages, presenting their own problems and challenges in the changing dynamics of seafood production and consumption. As one of the largest coastal cities in the country, Mumbai is a great case study on the effects of industrialization, modernization, overpopulation and pollution on fishing communities. Of course, other seaports and cities have their own histories, but Mumbai’s position as an urban fishing centre, with an economy and culture historically based on the profession, offers some broad narratives on the overall health of Indian fisheries and fisherfolk. And the city spotlights the larger conversations in different fishing centres about sustainability, overfishing, and the health of the ocean.
Marine researcher Siddharth Chakravarty believes that the term sustainable today is seen as a combination of economics, livelihoods and the environment; one which provides a win-win-win situation. I do not agree with this definition at all. True sustainability would imply putting primary food producers of this planetthe fishers, the farmers, the landless cultivatorsat the centre of our food systems and putting democratic control back in their hands. Once we’ve done that, we have a chance to reimagine the production of food that works with nature, that supports local economies, and one that provides nourishing and culturally appropriate food. That would be true sustainability, he says.
Most experts agree on the dangers of overfishing and out-of-season fishing, but the problem is complicated by issues of livelihood of the fisherfolk and an ever-increasing demand for seafood, as well as industrialization, pollution and land encroachment in coastal areas. Going forward, there just may not be any fish left in the seaand this will affect everyone, from fishermen to fishmongers and consumers.
Chakravarty says the term overfishing itself is problematic; it is often used as though it exists in a vacuum. We realize that what is happening at sea is actually a culmination of various drivers, from marginalization and oppression to governance and management, he says.
According to a Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute paper presented in 2013, Responsible Marine Fisheries: Reflections From Maharashtra, by V.D. Deshmukh, a principal scientist at the Mumbai Research Centre of CMFRI: Decadal compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of marine fish landings despite increasing at an annual growth rate of 3.2% from 1961 to 1990 slowed down to 0.41% during 1991-2000 and recorded negative growth rate (-4.7%) during past decade (2001-2010). The contribution of the state to total marine fish landings of India also declined from 19.6% in 1971-80 to 12.6% during 2001-10 and its rank in the total fish production slipped from 2nd to 5th in the country in 2012.
The paper added that an assessment of 25 types of stock in Maharashtra showed that (barely) 8% were abundant, 28% less abundant, 56% declining, 4% depleted, and 4% in a collapsed state. An analytical assessment of 36 species of commercially important finfishes, elasmobranchs, crustaceans and cephalopods showed that 60% of the stock is over-exploited.
One problem is culinary. It is the snobbery around super-sized crustaceansthe large silver pomfrets and the spiny lobstersthat ensure the highest demand for these. They are often displayed in the live aquariums of specialized seafood restaurants across Mumbai. Demand for them far outstrips that for the smaller and less glamorous species, which are rich in flavour and diverse in the ways that they are prepared by communities across the state.
2018 HT Media Ltd.