Relief for seafood lovers as fishing ban ends

CHENNAI: With the 45-day fishing ban along the State’s coast for mechanised trawlers coming to an end on Sunday, deep sea fishing is set to resume from Monday onwards.Seafood lovers can expect the price of different kinds of fish sold in the city to tumble within a week.Owners of mechanised trawlers used the ban period to repair and refurbish their boats and nets for the next season.“Owners spend about Rs 50,000 to Rs 75,000 on each of their boats for carrying out general repairs such as adding a new coat of paint at the bottom, setting right the sizes of holes in different types of nets to be used in deep seas and changing defunct timbers on board the boats,” said S A Mahesh, president of All Indian Traditional Fishermen Association from Kanyakumari.According to Fisheries department sources, distribution of subsidised diesel for these mechanised boats has also begun across the State and is expected to be over in a couple of days.Besides, about 500 fishermen from Andhra Pradesh, who were employed in a number of mechanised trawlers from Chennai Fishing Harbour in Kasimedu have also started returning to the city to join work.“Fishermen in the State are doubly happy after the State government led by Jayalalithaa recently hiked the financial assistance during the ban period from Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000,” said K Bharathi, president of South Indian Fishermen Welfare Association.About 8,500 boats in the State, including 800-odd from Kasimedu alone, have been anchored from April 15 after the 45-day fishing ban came into effect.It may be noted that the fishing sector in the State alone generates about Rs 4,000 crore as foreign exchange revenue annually.