India’s Angry Fishermen on Watch for Foreign Ships

At the start of the fishing season in August, Amarnath Doke invokes the sea gods for a prosperous and safe year. This year, he also is praying for seas free of foreign trawlers.

For years, under government license, huge foreign “factory” ships have worked India’s waters, leaving little stock for India’s 8 million fishermen.

Last March, thousands of fishermen from coastal villages near Bombay chugged out to the Arabian Sea, their 60-foot boats draped with banners that read, “Go back foreign vessels.” They surrounded a few ships, but later allowed them to pass.

One of the fishermen’s leaders, Vijay Bhandarkar, said the protests were called off when the government promised not to issue new licenses for foreign fishing in Indian waters. But the fishermen remain on guard, vowing to blockade ports all over India if foreign vessels are spotted when the season opens.

“If we find ships fishing in our waters after the monsoon, we will block any ship from coming into India,” said Bhandarkar, president of the local Fishermen’s Welfare Society.

The government says the factory ships--from such fishing nations as Japan, China and Taiwan--are either operated by joint-venture companies linked to Indian industrialists or leased by Indian companies. A leased vessel pays a $700 annual license fee, a joint venture nothing.

About 200 big trawlers have been fishing in India’s 200-mile-wide offshore economic zone, fishermen activists say.

“Families no longer earn enough to eat one meal. In the 1970s we had a three-ton haul a day and sailed home after two days. That is a dream now,” said Doke, 45.

The fisherman’s three children sometime go to sea with him, sleeping in a tiny cabin plastered with poster-portraits of Sagar Devta, the sea god, and Bharcha Veer, god of the deep sea. Doke’s wife also helps out, waiting on the dock when he lands to help shell or clean the catch.

“Fishing is my life. I don’t earn as much as I used to, but I can’t do anything but fish,” he said.

On average, the fishermen earn $100 a month, but a poor catch could mean they earn nothing.

Heavy losses over the last few years have forced many to turn away from the sea. “They have begun working in factories. If we do not fight now, we will be left with nothing,” said 17-year-old Gajanan Tambe.