Shrimp price crashes in Ramand

After the 61-day annual fishing ban, which came in to effaect on April 15 along the East coast of Tamil Nadu to facilitate breeding of fishes, was lifted on Friday night, fishermen ventured into sea in early morning hours of Saturday. But much to their delight, shrimps netted in huge quantities had gone beyond expectations.

Owing to unprecedented landing of shrimps, its procurement price had suffered a steep fall in market, NJ Bose, president, Rameswaram Mechanized Boat Fishermen Association, said. As the market value of shrimp is not enterprising, the fishermen had unanimously decided to suspend fishing, he said.

According to E Kathavarayan, Regional Deputy Director of Fisheries, Ramanathapuram, the entire fleet of 1,320 mechanized boats remains anchored along the shores in the district. Similar trend has also been prevailing in neighbouring Pudukottai district. Unusually, shrimp catch was three-fold high this time in the district on the first day after the ban was lifted. Since exporters had procured mass landings of shrimp without fixing price and even informed local fishermen that they would not further procure shrimps on Monday, citing the reasons the fishermen have decided to resume fishing after two more days.