Kollam: The twin harbours in Kollam - Sakthikulangara and Neendakara - along with a couple of other fish landing centres in Kollam are yet to return to their busy old days post- Ockhi disaster. The fishermen still shudder at the dreadful memories of the cyclone that had the worst affect on their lives in the recent history of sea tragedies after the Tsunami. Even fishermen with mechanised boats have restricted themselves to just 20 nautical miles from the shore for fishing and return with a poor catch.
"For traditional fishermen, the catch is very low post-Ockhi owing to a phenomenon by which algae, normally settled on the sea bed, got agitated because of the rough waves and rose to the upper layers of the sea. This is being experienced in the 12 nautical mile-range, where traditional vessels go out for fishing. This also causes a loss to the tune of lakhs as the fishing nets get trapped in these garbage-like floats," V. Sasikumar, state traditional fishing inboard outboard labours and owners union president, told DC. This has added to the woes of the fishermen who are yet to recover from the disaster.
Apart from this, the catch is comparatively low during the months of December, January, and February, according to experts. They also find the fish shoals have vanished from the usual spots in the deep sea, post-Ockhi.
The fishermen are also perplexed with the repeated warnings about the wrath of the sea being circulated by the authorities post-cyclone. Therefore several mechanised fishing boats that used to go as far as 50 to 60 nautical miles from the shore are now restricted within 20 nautical miles, to be secure in case of disasters.
Several fishermen who have lost their fishing equipment in the cyclone have no other means except to wait for the compensation announced by the Government based on the Ockhi package but that has not yet materialised.
