Fishing out the gene pool
Practical Action
Table 1. Kerala marine fish landings 1970-90 (All figures in '000 tonnes)
Until 1970, fish catches in the artisanal sector had been steadily increasing; 90-100 per cent of
production came from non-motorized traditional craft It is also important to note that over the 1960s as
much as 70 per cent of the prawn catch came from fishermen using these craft and traditional gears.
Year
Traditional Mechanised
Total Remarks
sector
sector landing
Landings
1970
1971
340 53
390 47
393
445
Both sectors largely complementary,
adding to total production.
1972
257 39
296
1973
1974
355 94
320 101
449
421
Competition for product starts between
both sectors but total landings peak
1975
241 180
421
1976
1977
1978
1980
272 59
238 107
256 118
144 135
331
345
374
279
Overall production declines drastically.
Intensifying competition for resources
by the mechanized sector at the cost
of the traditional sector.
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
201 73
240 85
287 98
263 130
197 129
274
325
385
393
326
Outboard motors taken up rapidly,
boosting the artisanal share,
Increasingly, catches from the
motorized ring seines dominate the
artisanal catch.
1986
1987
1990
252 131
152 151
250 150
383
303
400a
By the end of the decade catches
approach pre-1970 levels, but with
wide fluctuations. Non-motorized
fishing almost entirely displaced.
Modem development strategies for fisheries have generally been based on industrial
processes, where production is not seen to be limited by resource constraints, and where
short-term economic gain and super-efficient hunting technology rule. The capacity of fish
stocks to replenish themselves is limited; however, and the optimistic economic projections
that have justified the huge investment in industrial fishing technology worldwide have not
taken these resource constraints into consideration.
Overfishing problems generally arise
when interests from outside the
fishing communities invest in new
technology: commercial interests that
are either not aware of traditional
taboos and community controls -or not
bound by them. In Europe thousands
of small-scale fishermen were
displaced by the introduction of
trawling and steam drift-netting before
the turn of the twentieth century.
Prawn Trawlers wreak havoc on reefs
The fishing communities of five coastal villages (Pallithottam,
Port Quilon, Moothakara, Vaddy and Thagassiry) next to the
town of Quilon have been particularly hit by the introduction
of pawn trawling. Situated some 10km south of what is
probably India’s largest trawler base – Neendakara – their
fishing grounds have been devastated by the uncontrolled
plundering of thousands of trawlers. Mr Andrews, a fisherman
from the village of Port Quilon (and Secretary to the local
fishworker organisation), has studied and documented the
impact of these trawlers on the fishing grounds and of the
Similarly, the introduction of trawling
fish stocks. His underwater maps show how the trawlers have
destroyed the sand bars and delicate reef structures that play
technology to Kerala in south-western such a key role in the reproductive and production cycle of
India is threatening the livelihoods of
marine life. He has listed some 150 once-common species
hundreds of thousands of artisanal
fishworkers who depend upon inshore
fishing. Investment in prawn-trawlers
was actively supported by the Kerala
(including some 135 fin fish species) that have been severely
depleted by the uncontrolled trawl fishing, to the extent that
they are no longer caught in the area by the artisanal
fishermen.
Government in the 1960s, and by 1970 a sizeable fleet had been built up. During the 1970s
the artisanal fish-catch fell dramatically, and by 1980 their share was 45 per cent of the
1970 level (see Table 1). The desperate response of many small-scale fishworkers was to
react with violence and to invest in more intensive fishing technology to compete with the
trawlers.
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