As dawn breaks, Vitalis slowly glides into undulating waves below an azure sky. With a sparse crew of six, she bobs towards the fishing ground some 10 nautical miles off the shore. The boat returns after five hours, its hold nearly empty. A pall of gloom settles as the fishers offload the catch and divide the meagre earnings among themselves. “This is our fourth futile trip in a row. This is supposed to be the peak season for us (traditional fishers) and we are staring at a famine,” says Thomas, a fisher from Tangassery, Kollam.
With the territorial waters running out of marine stocks, the boats often venture into deep sea investing a lot of fuel, time and effort. But the shoals stay elusive and the once-abundant fields are reporting lower and lower yields.
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