Fisheries and food safety department officials have started conducting surprise raids at fishing harbours and fish markets in Kanyakumari district following rumours in neighbouring Kerala that fishes from the district are preserved using formaldehyde. This has badly affected trade in the busy Chinna Muttom fishing harbour in Kanyakumari district and affected the livelihood of fishermen and allied workers for the last one week.
Since the annual fishing ban is in effect in the western coast (parts of Kanyakumari district and whole of Kerala to Gujarat), Kerala primarily depends on fish from the Chinna Muttom fishing harbour for its requirement across the state. The fish brought to the harbour is transported to Kerala in trucks and containers.
Fishermen said that there are 264 trawlers from the port that are engaged in daily fishing. They start from the port at 5am and return to the shore with the catch between 9 and 10pm. Unlike other deep sea fishermen of Thoothoor region who go for deep sea fishing up to 50 days, covering a distance of 400 to 1,000 nautical miles, fishermen of Chinna Muttom do fishing between 20 and 30 nautical miles from the shore.
Some of the fish varieties like Mackerel Scad that was sold for Rs 2,000 (20 kg) is sold for a mere Rs 300 now. Fishermen claimed that they are suffering a loss of Rs 70,000 to Rs 1 lakh per boat everyday. To avert loss, fishermen from the region refrained to go for fishing last Friday and Saturday. It was during this time, the fisheries department intervened to put an end to the issue by checking the quality of fish.
On the directions of the director of fisheries, the department officials from Kanyakumari sought help from the Fisheries College and Research Institute in Tuticorin. “They prepared chemicals and gave us a kit with 25 strips that can be readily used to check if formaldehyde has been used. The strip turns yellow within 10 minutes if the preservative is used,” said I Wivin, a fisheries inspector at Chinna Muttom.
Late on Tuesday evening fisheries officials led by assistant director V Deepa and Wivin and officials from the food safety department conducted a surprise raid at the harbour. Officials checked samples of fish and ice used to store the fish with the strips and found the result was negative, proving that formaldehyde was not used. Officials plan to conduct such surprise tests in other harbours and fish markets in the district.
“Since the fishermen here are mostly engaged in one-day fishing they only use ice from the nearby factories. Ice can keep the fish intact and preserve it from decay for more than 10 days. At times fishermen use rock salt to prevent speedy melting of ice, but there is no need to use the harmful preservative. However, we are planning to check vans carrying fish to Kerala to check if they are illegally using formaldehyde,” Wivin added.
No comments:
Post a Comment