The Munambam fishing harbour, closed more than a fortnight ago following fears of community spread of COVID-19, will reopen on Monday while the Thoppumpady harbour, which has not been operating at full capacity, is expected to see the operation of long line and gillnet boats being restored fully from Wednesday.
The reopening of the Munambam harbour and the operation of fishing boats will be on the basis of COVID-19 protocol. Boats will be allowed to go out on fishing ventures on alternate days based on even and odd registration. The boats with registration ending in odd numbers will be allowed to operate on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, while those with even numbers will be allowed on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
There are around 600 long line and gillnet boats in Thoppumpady that have been idling because fishers from Tamil Nadu centres have not been allowed to come to Kochi on account of the pandemic. However, harbour management committee sources said the District Collector was expected to allow the restoration of operation of such boats in the coming week.
The harbours in Munambam and Thoppumpady play a big role in the economy of these centres and there have been constant plea from boat operators to allow full operation over the last fortnight. The Thoppumpady harbour has not been fully operational since the trawling ban ended in the second week of August.
The fishing boats in Munambam will be issued tokens to land their catch at the harbour. The token system is being introduced to reduce rush at the harbour during sale of fish. Only thirty boats will be issued tokens on a day.
P.P. Gireesh, chairman of the Munambam-Vypeen Zonal Council for Protection of Fisheries and secretary of the Boat Owners’ Association, said the entire Munambam area accounted for about ₹1,000 crore of fish business yearly and that restoring normal operations was a must for sustaining the local economy.