With the water storage level in Stanley Reservoir at Mettur continues to remain poor, the local fishermen who have been rendered jobless have started migrating to other parts of the state for their livelihood. More than 2,000 inland fishermen of Mettur Dam, Pannavadi, Keerakaranur, Kottaiyur and other surrounding villages have enrolled themselves as members of the Mettur Dam Fishermen Cooperative Marketing Society. They have been authorised with licence to fish in the dam’s water spread area. When the dam has good storage of water, the fishermen used to have temporary camps in different parts of the dam site and course of River Cauvery to catch fish and market the same through the fishermen cooperative society. After the Public Works Department closed the shutters of the Mettur Dam for the farm activities in delta districts by the end of January, there is no improvement in the realisation of water in River Cauvery at Mettur. The storage level has further gone down, much to the anxiety of the fishermen. A cross section of the fishermen say that they are not getting adequate catch of fishes, despite the State Fisheries Department releasing fish fingerlings in the water spread area regularly in the recent past. With no hope of any increase in the storage level and making their livelihood through fishing, a majority of the inland fishermen have started migrating to other parts of the state on the look out for jobs for their livelihood. They have already closed their temporary camps and have positioned their coracles in the dry water spread area. They are expected to return back only during the monsoon season. Many of them who preferred to stay back here have already turned into farm and construction workers. The water level in the Mettur Dam stood at 35.41 ft on Sunday against its full level of 120 feet. The inflow into the dam was 673 cusecs.