Bountiful yield puts AP fishermen in jubilant mood

Visakhapatnam Bumper's first voyage catch after the end of 61-day annual conservation period also called annual ban in fishermen's parlance has put the traditional fisherfolk of North Andhra Pradesh in an upbeat mood.

Following occasional pre-monsoon showers the water temperatures came down slightly leading to good catch mostly by motorised boats and a few mechanised boats. Most of the mechanised boats who venture into deep-sea for fishing on a full voyage of a fortnight this time opted out by not going due to high operational cost mainly owing to increase in labour cost and steep rise diesel prices-the main raw material for their operations.

Those who returned to the shore after daylong fishing or short voyage after resumption of the new season from the early hours of June 15 say they have returned with bountiful catches of shrimp and tuna. While brown shrimp and tiger have good demand in the overseas market as well as the local market, tuna is mostly bought by agents for exports to Kerala, Japan, United States and other overseas markets. It fetches more if it's exported live or hygienically processed and packed.

"For those undertaking short voyages, mostly daylong fishing, the catch is very good. They are returning boat-laden with a lot of shrimp," Lakshmana Rao, Deputy Director of Fisheries, Anakapalle told Bizz Buzz on Wednesday.

After the end of the rainy season, fishermen use gillnets with bigger mesh sizes and now mostly they use trammel nets leading to a lot of juvenile fishing. "We are completely opposed to juvenile fishing as it will lead to unhealthy competition and fast depletion of fish population," said Arjili Dasu, general secretary of National Fisherfolks' Forum.

Visakhapatnam is the largest seafood export centre in India with an estimated exports of Rs 12,000 crore to Rs 15,000 crore through Visakhapatnam Port Authority and Adani Gangavaram Port.

Frozen shrimp accounts for the largest share. Of late, Vannamei shrimp (whiteleg shrimp) grown by aquaculture farmers is in high demand because of lower price and culinary value.

Andhra Pradesh has emerged as the aqua capital of India and is all set to play a key role in achieving the target of $14 billion exports by 2025. India's seafood exports set a new record post-pandemic flying highest to $8.09 billion in FY 2022-23.

Indian exporters want to make the United States a key destination for shrimp exports by increasing their share, learning a lesson from meteoric rise in exports by Ecuador which increased export of aquaculture shrimp from four lakh MT in 2017 to 13 lakh MT in 2022. India presently meets over 40 per cent of shrimp requirements of America.