By Glenn Costa
MARGAO: Goans and fish curry rice are synonymous with each other. And a majority of Goans are legendary for their laid back, susegado attitude; not too bothered even if their government does not provide them with regular water, uninterrupted electricity or even roads – or something in the neighbouring waddo is burning down.
However, if you mess with his fish he can get pretty ticked off.
Though – to his chagrin - nowadays he has to compete for his fish with tourists, vis-à-vis hotels, exporters and NRIs, who, he grumbles, do not bargain, and so prices go up and colourful fisherwomen come to sell fish sporting even more gold.
And coupled with this is the steady trend of diminishing catches. Fishermen use any and all means to keep the fish supply coming.
In the Indian context, about 73 per cent of the total marine fish catch comes from the west coast and Goa with a sea coast of about 105 km and a continental shelf of about 10 million hectares has an actively fished area of about 20,000 square kilometres, besides being endowed with rich pelagic and demersal fisheries resources.
However, the high demand coupled with the fact that too many people are dependent on these resources has led to overexploitation, says a research paper.
But yesterday Curtorim village saw a local ‘fishy’ effort that yielded good results and probably gave the locals a small measure of comfort.
At Curtorim’s ‘Mae Todem’, agriculturist Rui Mene zes harvested a bumper crop of fresh water fish including Carp and Chonak. The seeds had been put in October.
The seeds were given by the fisheries department and Rui told the media that he had fed the fish and taken care of them for all these months.
“This is a family and friend operation,” he said pointing to the large number of people manning the nets and ferrying the fish in baskets from the nets to the holding ground.
Also present were fisheries department people and the local MLA, Mr Reginaldo Lourenco who told media that this initiative was good for the village because besides the fish that will feed so many, the water collected in this pond would help recharge the ground water as well as keep the surrounding area green. He said that there were six such ponds in Curtorim Village.
Back to the overexploitation: As far back as 2007, scientists from National Institute of Oceanography, or NIO as it is popularly known, had expressed concern over the overexploitation of fish resources.
Scientists, in their research paper ‘Overexploitation of fishery resources with particular reference to Goa’ argued that there was an urgent need to have more rational fisheries management and resource development in the state.
“The state fisheries have several social and economic implications. Therefore, reducing fish stock to biologically and ecologically harmful levels will result in a loss of potential benefits such as food, income and employment in the long run,’’ the report stated.
The paper by scientist, Z A Ansari and co-authored by C T Achuthankutty and S G Dalal, both NIO researchers, had pointed out that “Landings of major fisheries resource in the Indian ocean region have declined significantly and the Goan coast is no exception to it. In many cases, the rate of harvesting has exceeded the natural rate of renewal, resulting in biological over-fishing.”
The NIO scientists, quoting the official figures, stated that between 1963 and 1999, when the average annual marine fish production of India grew by 3.5 per cent that of Goa grew by 6.02 per cent.
(Fisheries department gives subsidies for making ponds and provides the seedling)
