Operations at the Thoppumpady fisheries harbour were partially disrupted following a dispute among fishers over the arrival of a couple of boats manned by fishers from Tamil Nadu.
Purse seine boat workers had objected to the arrival of gillnet boats on Saturday at the harbour with their catch. Harbour workers said the boats had arrived at Thoppumpady with fishers from Thengapattanam in Tamil Nadu.
A Fisheries Department official said fishers from other States were not allowed to operate out of fishing harbours in Kerala as part of measures taken to contain COVID-19. However, there is a difference of opinion among the community of fishers regarding the rule, which has divided them.
While one group said fishers from the neighbouring State may be allowed to operate out of Thoppumpady, the other maintained that rules should be stringently implement. An online meeting of stakeholders on Sunday in the presence of District Collector S. Suhas failed to arrive at a consensus.
The Thoppumpady harbour, Kerala’s biggest such facility, had remained closed for most part of the lockdown after the 52-day trawling ban that ended in the second week of August.
Activities at the harbour have been restricted for a long time, and workers are in a poor state, said M. Majeed, general secretary of the Harbour Coordination Committee. He added that besides hundreds of trawl boat workers from Tamil Nadu, there were around 5,000 people who depended on the harbour directly for livelihood.
Swathanthra Matsya Thozhilali Federation leader V.D. Majeendran said the harbour was the lifeline of West Kochi and contributed immensely to seafood export business in the State as a whole.