Behind a lighthouse on Marina Beach in Chennai, the capital of India’s southeastern state Tamil Nadu, two clashing scenes play out. On one side, early morning walkers wander the vast expanse of sand embracing the sea. On the other, opposite a row of identical green and pink buildings where the local fishing community lives, the atmosphere is frantic. Fishers are pulling in their boats and folding their nets on the beach. Vendors aggressively clean their fish stalls with water and brooms, readying them for customers.
The fish that the sellers begin to stack into slippery pyramids on their tables represent a mix—some of it landed on this beach by small-scale fishers, while the rest was caught by industrial trawlers operating farther away. That combination makes this open-air market an ideal place for a lesson in sustainable seafood, explains marine geographer Divya Karnad of Ashoka University in Sonipat, northern India.
She’s addressing a group of college students and professionals from Chennai who have gathered at the lighthouse this February morning for a Fishploration event—a scientifically guided walk through fish markets that aims to help urban seafood eaters in India make more sustainable choices.
Many city consumers tend to be familiar with just a few varieties of high-value fish like seerfish and pomfret, Karnad says. This partly has to do with where they get their fish from. City consumers are increasingly relying on supermarkets and online stores that predominantly stock popular seafood varieties. Most restaurants, too, have just a few types of fish on their menus. The result is a mismatch between what small-scale fishers can provide and what people frequently seek out, says Karnad. “I feel like at least with the younger generation, they’re totally disconnected.”
This rings true for Yogabhavani Manogaran, who works at Barclays bank. A regular fish eater, Manogaran has long steered clear of fish markets, letting her father do the shopping. But today, she’s eager to get a clearer perspective on what the city’s beachside market has to offer. “Because I eat fish regularly, I want to know if I’m doing it ethically,” she tells me.
Building a connection with seafood and buying more responsibly requires three things, Karnad tells the Fishploration participants: identifying fish correctly; understanding which varieties are in season and okay to eat—that is, choosing non-threatened species that aren’t breeding that month; and recognizing how the fish was caught, to avoid destructive fishing practices.
“You should be able to go out and identify exactly what fish you’re eating because the greater diversity of fish you eat, the healthier it is for you and for the ocean,” she says.
To help the participants identify fish, Karnad hands out A3-sized posters displaying more than 50 marine species from India’s east coast that are safe to eat in February.
Karnad has compiled this guide for every month of the year and for both of the country’s coasts as part of InSeason Fish, a collective she started with her wildlife biologist husband, Chaitanya Krishna, and friends to create awareness about seafood sustainability. InSeason Fish’s website also lists species that should be avoided each month. To make the lists, the team scoured official government data and scientific studies for details on species’ breeding seasons. For about 10 percent of the species, the team corroborated the scientific information with knowledge from local sellers, who are mostly women. The fisherwomen are the ones who cut the fish and see when the eggs are inside, so they know when the breeding season is, Karnad explains. Where scientific data wasn’t robust enough, such as for threadfin bream and ribbonfish, Karnad’s team relied mainly on the fishing communities’ knowledge.
A participant asks if anchovies will be available today. “Everything will be available,” Karnad says. “The question is whether you want to eat it throughout the year.”
Ironically, some of the fish the women have purchased from Kasimedu may have originated on Marina Beach. Small-scale fishers are increasingly selling their high-value catches like seerfish to traders at harbors such as Kasimedu for export, S. Velvizhi, a marine researcher at M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation in Chennai, who’s not involved with Fishploration, later tells me. At the harbors, fishers are assured a sale at a good price, unlike in the local markets where customers are less reliable. But then, on busier market days, the fishers’ own family members or neighbors might pick up the same fish and bring it back to their stalls. “They feel like unless they have a seerfish on their table nobody is even going to look at the table,” Karnad says.
To keep driving forward with their goal of shifting buyer behavior, Karnad’s team has added new initiatives. They’re documenting recipes for the lesser-known fish varieties, for instance, and are collaborating with chefs and restaurateurs to get them to offer more diverse, in-season fish varieties sourced locally from small-scale fishers.
Part of the Tula Foundation and Hakai Institute family