Fishing season begins

Trawler and mechanised boat operators ventured into the sea from today for fishing after a 45-day fishing holiday.

In compliance with the Centre's directive, the state government observes a fishing holiday in the Bay of Bengal from April 15 to May 31 every year.

With oil prices shooting up and shrimp prices not being very encouraging in the international market, shrimp catching may not be all that viable during 2006-07 fishing season even though trawler operators are exuding optimism, T M Chodary, president, Association of Indian Fishery Industries, told Business Standard.

Visakhapatnam is the headquarters for deep-sea fishing (trawler industry) in the country and about 50 per cent of the mechanised boats in the state operate from the Visakhapatnam fishing harbour. On Thursday, 18 trawlers, 14 mini-trawlers and 400 mechanised boats set out for fishing from here.

During the last fishing season, trawler operators earned as much as Rs 15-20 lakh profit on each trawler on both shrimp and Tuna catching and other diversified activities like transporting ONGC workers. Mini-trawler operators too reaped rich profits ranging between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 6 lakh on each vessel, Chodary said.

With the beginning of new fishing season, operators of both trawlers and mechanised boats have spent about Rs 5 crore on repairs in the last one month. While a big trawler operator spent as much as Rs 5-8 lakh on repairs and overhaul work, a mini-trawler operator spent Rs 3-5 lakh.

Sounding a diffident note on profits this time, he said the fuel price rose to Rs 30 per litre from Rs 19 in the beginning of last fishing season.

As a result, fuel expenditure on each voyage may go up to 85 per cent of the total cost of fishing. During the last fishing season, oil expenses constituted about 70 per cent of the total cost. Besides the rising fuel cost, the prices of shrimp in the international market have remained constant.

"Four years back, we used to get Rs 300 per kg of shrimp. Now, the average price has fallen below Rs 200 per kg," he said.