Even before dawn, at around 3 am, fisherfolk on the coast of Puducherry and Tamil Nadu venture into the sea. A cumbersome workday follows, often more than 12 hours long. In this time, they disentangle nets, prep boats, catch fish, auction the catch and visit fish markets. Men and women both toil, and often exchange roles. Despite several technological advancements that could make their lives easier, the trade and vocation of fishing here still depends very much on manual labour and traditional knowledge.
When my father used to fish, he navigated in the sea and found the directions using the direction with which the wind blows. We used to know at what time the wind will blow during the day. We have eight different types of winds based on the direction it blows – for example, vaadai kaathu blows from north to south and kacha kaathu blows from south to north. — Mukesh, a fisherman from Chinna Mudaliyar Chavadi
Our team at the Centre for New Economics Studies at O.P. Jindal Global University conducted an ethnographic research project. We interviewed fishers across the shores of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry – specifically, Thandiraayan Kuppam, Chinna Mudaliyar Chavadi, Vaithikuppam and Kurichikuppam.
We interviewed members from the community to inquire about their trade, fishing techniques, collating income-consumption patterns, their lived experiences from the pandemic, and understand how pollution-climate change is affecting their vocation and trade. The study also aimed towards highlighting the emerging business patterns and trends within the trade and educated young (jobless) workers are turning to fishing as their “last preferred choice of work” sans alternative employment opportunities.
Fishing is not an isolated practice and has been significantly affected since the advent of the Anthropocene epoch. A once-tranquil coast is increasingly overcrowded with people and materials. Fishing sites are often swarming with fishers and, more recently, tourists, after the government began advertising quaint beaches and picturesque towns as good places in which to kick back.
The amount of waste has thus increased as well – and exponentially so.
We often catch plastic in the tonnes. When we measured the weight of the plastic that got caught in the net two days back, it was close to one tonne. We caught more but we had to throw it back into the sea as the boat would not take that much weight. That day, we caught no fish. Just plastic. That is why I haven’t gone fishing for the past two days. — Muralidharan, a fisherman of 40 years from Vaithikuppam, Puducherry
Ten to 15 years back, we caught only 10 plastic bags if we drew the net over a distance of 2 km. Now I get 10 plastic bags if I draw the net over a distance of just 10 metres. — Mukesh, a fisherman from Chinna Mudaliyar Chavadi
It’s common to find fishing sites with heaps of plastic litter on the surface, taken there by a sewage pipeline that opens into the sea. Plastic waste often includes disposable water bottles, tarpaulin and abandoned or lost fishing gear. Plastic in the seas have also affected the lifecycle and well-being of the fish. Every fisher admitted to catching plastic along with the fish. In fact, eight of 10 individuals said they caught more plastic. Plastic affects the quality of the catch but also makes the already-strenuous fishing process more so. Disentangling plastic from fishing nets takes up most of the fishers’ time – a resource they already have very little of.
The two-month ban
Another issue that affects the local fishing community here is the exploitation of the fish population. Some 55% of the fisherfolk reported that in their lifetimes, the size of their catch had progressively dropped. They also said the populations of some species, like the kaarai (Indian silver belly fish) and the sudumbu (white fish), had dwindled more than others.
In an attempt to reduce overfishing and keep the fish from becoming locally extinct, the Puducherry government imposes a near-complete two-month fishing ban from April to May. This when the fish reproduce and their newborns explore the waters. In this time, only fishers with sanctioned fibre boats can venture into the sea, for a fixed amount of time, and what they catch they are required to sell on the beach itself. In this time, the fish markets make do with an assortment of fish imported from Andhra Pradesh and Kerala…