Fish and fishing industry

Does the fish curry and feni combination give the Goans a happy and contented personality… May be. Like in any seashore country, Goa and fish are inseperable from each other. Everyday before leaving for work, every Goan instinctively rushes to the local market to buy the fresh fish. Sardines, Tuna, Mackerel, Kingfish, Ribbon, Pomfret, Bombay deck, the list is endless. Prawns, crabs, mussels, lobsters, add to the huge variety of seafood eaten by the local population.

To feed this large market of fish eaters and also to export to other states, large fleets of mechanized boats leave the shore everyday. Earlier there were only the traditional canoes used by the Ramponkars, who are fishermen by caste. Now there are various types of fishing boats going into deep sea and also into the estuaries. Mechanised purse-seine boats, deep-sea trawling, Traditional canoes go out to the Arabian Sea, throughout the year except during monsoon. Now the government has stipulated a period of recess during the monsoon from 31st May to 25th July. Diverse variety of fish like the Tuna(Bokodo), Sardine(Taarle), Mackerel(Bangado), Kingfish(Visvon), Ribbon fish(Baalo) and Prawn(Sungat) are caught in the Konkan coast. (names in bracket are in Konkani)

Fishing boats

There are many types of fishing boats varying in size from open boats, powered by outboard engines to huge factory ships, which can not only do deep sea fishing, but also process the catch. Major classifications are Traditional boats with or without sail, open boats fitted with outboard motors, mechanized trawlers with storage and towing capabilities and purse-seine boats with deep-sea capability. Traditional boats are still used for fishing by local Ramponkars who have been catching fish in Konkan coast since centuries. Though most of them still do fishing in the traditional method, some of them have modernized themselves by fitting a Yamaha outboard motor to their wooden canoes.

A mechanised trawler means a vessel fitted with propeller for towing and pulls a bag net through the water to catch fish. Most of the mechanized trawlers are built in Honnavar and Karwar in the neighbouring state of Karnataka and interestingly most of the fish catch goes back to these ports. Each boat may cost around 22 to 25 lakh including the huge net which itself costs 6 lakh. Finance companies like the Madgaon Urban Cooperative or Bicholim Urban Cooperative banks and many nationalized banks give loans for fishermen to build such boats.

The fish catch is mostly exported to states like Kerala, Karnataka and Maharashtra, from the wholesale market in Madgaon and also from Panaji and Betul. The three major fishing ports in Panjim, Vasco and Betul unload tons of fish and other sea produce everyday to be packed and exported to neighbouring states and also abroad. Other than these there are minor fishing jetties in Chapora, Cortalim and Canacona. This year nearly 172 boats were operating from the large Vasco fishing port, of which 35 of them go deep-sea fishing and 65 boats were purse seine. This jetty placed precariously between the Indian Oil Depot and the Mormugao Harbour is managed by the Goa Boat Owners Association and owned by the Mormugao Port Trust.

But in the recent years the fish catch has gone down not only in Goa, but also in the entire Konkan coast. The fishermen attribute this to the foreign deep sea trawlers who fish in the international waters, but regularly venture into Indian territory. But the real reason might be over exploitation of the fish resources since the introduction of mechanized trawlers. Now that the Supreme Court has ruled that the 55 day ban during monsoon should be adhered, the situation might improve in the coming years.

Text & Pic by: Levine Lawrence