’No link between drop in fish catch and tsunami’

’No link between drop in fish catch and tsunami’

Mangaloretoday News Network

Udupi/Surathkal, March 24: As against the hot speculations that production of fish catch has come down in the post tsunami, fishermen, fish traders and fishmeal unit owners in Malpe ascertain that it is the usual phenomenon witnessed during summer and tsunami has no role in it.

Industrialist Pramodh Madhwaraj, who owns two fish processing units out of three in Malpe, opined that there is not much difference in the situation in contrast to last year. Obviously there is decrease in fish catch since few days. It is not unusual and tsunami has nothing to do with it, he added.

The amount of fishes used for processing in my industry units prior to March 10 was 1,25,866 lakh kgs per day. It is 1,08,000 kgs at present and there is only some difference, he added.

Meanwhile, Ramesh, the Manager for the Baby Marine Products, the other fish processing unit that is exclusively used for freezing the fishes, opined that there is a downfall in fish catch since last month.

On the other hand, one of the fishermen said that he personally feels that tsunami has not affected the trade and generally the peak period for fish catch ends by December every year. “From January till the advent of monsoon, the fish business lingers around loss and profit of the trade,” he opined.

When contacted, Mohammed Haris, the secretary for the Indian Fishmeal and Fish Oil Exporters’ Association and partner of Mukka Seafood Industries, said that though the tsunami in Japan may not hit the fishmeal units in Mangalore immediately, there is a possibility that it may affect the fishmeal units in near future as large number of fishmeal is being exported to Japan. On the other hand, Association Secretary and Janata Fishmeal proprietor A C Kunder said that so far he has not suffered any losses as it takes about 30 to 45 days to reach Japan ports and he hopes that by that time, Japan would return to normalcy. He also said that he is in touch with the traders in Japan.