A score of traditional fishing boats moored at the Kalamukku Vallakkadavu fish landing centre broke loose on Tuesday morning leaving fishermen and police personnel scrambling to recover the vessels to avoid a grave and dangerous situation. Fishermen claimed that 20 boats broke loose from the stakes to which they were tied at the fish landing centre in the sturdy flow of low tide water. The boats that broke loose ended up near the shipping channel, close to the natural gas receiving terminal off the Vypeen coast.
P.V. Jayan, a traditional fisherman, said it was a dangerous situation because the fishing boats had floated close to the shipping channel where it could have led to collisions. He added that 20 fishing boats, most of them big ones with inboard engines, were among those that broke loose. He said some boats sustained damage. But there was substantial damage to stakes in the backwaters off the Vypeen coast, deployed by traditional fishermen who use the stakes as stays for their traditional nets.
Mr. Jayan said the owners of the boats that broke loose would not be liable to pay compensation for the stakes that were damaged because the boat owners had been demanding a safer haven for fishing vessels that use the landing centre, which is owned and operated by a private party.
There are around 70 big fishing boats with inboard engines that use the fish landing centre. There are an equal number of smaller boats, which use outboard engines. They include small fibre boats. It has been the demand of fishermen using the fish landing centre to have better facilities to moor the boats because the flow of water during the tides is strong and boats are often affected.
Traditional fishermen represented by the Kerala Paramparagatha Matsya Thozhilali Samithi said the Fisheries department and fisheries cooperative Matsyafed should use this opportunity to sanction sufficient money to build a proper fish landing centre as well as storage and sales facilities for fish from the boats.