Fishermen lined up their motorised crafts and mechanised boats on the shore as the two-month closed season came into effect from the wee hours of Monday.
Fishing operations using mechanised and motorised boats in the Bay of Bengal off the Prakasam coast have been banned till June 14 to conserve fish and other marine resources during the breeding season so that fishermen could have a good catch during the monsoon season, explained Fisheries Deputy Director A.Balaram, overseeing the process of anchoring of fishing boats at the picturesque Kothapatnam seashore.
Meanwhile, a group of fishermen of Ethamukala village welcomed the Indian Meteorological department predicting a near normal monsoon this year.
“Good rains during the southwest monsoon period meant a good catch for us after the lifting of the ban period,” Prabhu Prakash Naidu, a community elder, said.
El Nino concerns
The fishermen were earlier worried over El Nino conditions hampering monsoon rain this year. Climate change has been adversely affecting breeding of species of fish in the sea also of late. They now hope for a better season at least this year in the wake of the IMD’s prediction that El Nino is likely to be weak during the monsoon period.
As many as 2,300 motorised crafts and 42 mechanised boats were anchored on the shores in the 60 landing centres in the coastal mandals of Ongole, Kothapatnam, Chirala, Vetapalem, Chinnaganjam, Nagulapapadu, Tangutur, Singarayakonda, Ulavapadu, and Gudluru. However, country boats could still go for fishing.
Aid disbursal
Drawing staff members from Kadapa, the Fisheries department has constituted 15 teams to strictly enforce the ban and extend financial assistance of ₹4,000 each at the rate of six fishermen in the case of each motorised craft and at the rate of eight fishermen in the case of mechanised crafts, said Mr.Balaram. “After enumeration and matching of the details of fishermen on their Aadhaar card and bank details, the assistance will be credited to their bank accounts by this month-end,” Mr.Balaram said.
Meanwhile, fishermen urged the State government to enhance the financial assistance to ₹10,000 to each fisherman as promised and double the subsidy on diesel to ₹12 in view of the steep increase in the fuel price.