Riya Behl

Editor

Mufeena Nasrin M. K.

Student Reporter

large_FEATURE-image5-MN-Sardine-loads-are-falling-in-Vadakara.png

medium_FEATURE-image5-MN-Sardine-loads-are-falling-in-Vadakara.png

small_FEATURE-image5-MN-Sardine-loads-are-falling-in-Vadakara.png

thumbnail_FEATURE-image5-MN-Sardine-loads-are-falling-in-Vadakara.png

FEATURE-image5-MN-Sardine-loads-are-falling-in-Vadakara.png

“Kadalile raajav thimingalam aannenkilum njammale, meenpanikkare raajav mathiyaann[If the king of the ocean is the dolphin, our king, the fisherfolk’s king, is the oil sardine].” Babu (name changed) is a fish loader at the Chombal Fishery Harbour in Vadakara town in Kerala. He has been doing this job – loading and unloading mostly oil sardine fish (Sardinella longiceps) – for a few decades now. Babu reaches the harbour around 7 a.m. and changes into clothes he has kept aside for his work – a blue mundu and a t-shirt, along with chappals. The 49-year-old loader then walks towards the sea, wading through knee-high and muddy water to get to the boats. “All of us [loaders] keep different chappals and clothes for this work because the water smells,” he says. He will leave by late evening when the harbour finally falls quiet.  This reporter spoke to Babu on a cool December day as he came into work at the harbour, already buzzing with activity. Long-necked, white pelicans were hovering and hopping around the bamboo baskets in the boats, hoping to steal some of the fish. Nets filled with fish lay dumped on the ground. The sounds of people negotiating filled the harbour.

Boats of all sizes were moving in and out of the busy harbour bustling with customers, sellers, agents and people like Babu, who load and offload the fish from the boats onto the harbour and into waiting tempos. He estimates around 200 people work here. Everyday, the first thing Babu does when he reaches the harbour in the morning is to keep his equipment under the shade of a tall Indian almond tree – an orange plastic basket or crate, water bottle, chappals and theruva, a small round shaped flat bundle of cloth or rope covered with plastic sheet. He places his theruva as a cushion between his basket and his head on which he will carry a load of fish. Today Babu is collecting fish from a four-person outboard engine boat, one of the smallest boats at this harbour. He works only with non-trawler boats, as commercial trawlers usually hire in-house loaders. “These fishermen go to the sea for a week or more on big boats,” he says, “That boat can’t come to the harbour so it is [anchored] further away. The fishermen bring us the fish on these smaller boats.”Babu scoops the oil sardine into his basket with a small net called maal. The water oozes out of tiny holes in the basket as we make our way back to the harbour. “In this month [December 2022] we have gotten a big catch of sardines,” he says. He earns Rs. 40 for carrying a basket of fish, and is paid by boat owners or agents who buy fish to resell at local markets.

“It’s difficult to say how many baskets we carry in a day because it depends on how much fish comes in,” Babu says, adding that there are days where he can earn a maximum of Rs. 2,000 in a day. “I can only earn that much if there is a lot of oil sardine coming in.”

Babu began working in the fishing industry as a teenager. He started out as a fisherman and over the years began to do loading work at the harbour. His chomadu pani or daily-wage loading work begins once the boats start to return from the Arabian Sea in Kozhikode district.  In the last decade, he has observed an unpredictability in oil sardine catch. “When there is a smaller catch of [oil] sardine, we try to divide the [loading] work amongst each other,” he says, “If there are more empty boats that come in, then we know we have to see that all of us can get at least some work so we decide amongst ourselves.”

As the only earning member in his family of five – his mother, wife and two sons – he says an  uncertainty about the catch has hit daily-wage workers at the harbour hard. In 2021, the oil sardine catch was 3,297 tonnes in Kerala, the lowest since 1995, says the Marine Fish Landings in India 2021, published by Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Kochi (CMFRI).  “In the last ten years, we have seen a drop in oil sardine catch and observed that this fish might be moving further away from Kerala’s coastline,” says a scientist at CMFRI Kochi, who did not wish to be named. They also added that climate change, the cyclical growth of oil sardines, La nino effect and the growing presence of jellyfish has adversely impacted the catch.   The <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/library/resource/handbook-on-fisheries-statistics-2020/">Handbook on Fisheries Statistics 2020</a> found that Kerala had the highest landing of 0.45 lakh tonnes of Indian oil sardine among states and union territories on the west coast. Oil sardine, Babu says, is one of the most common, nutritious and cheap fish in Kerala. Earlier, he says, its catch would also be dried for consumption. He has now noticed a rise in the number of this fish going to processing mills in Mangalore and other nearby areas to make food for poultry food and fish oil. “There is a lot more catch of oil sardines than other fish here, so we are able to fill more baskets.”

Sardine loads are falling in Vadakara

سارڈن کی گھٹتی مقدار سے پریشان وڈکرا کے ماہی گیر

வடகர துறைமுகத்தில் வீழ்ச்சியடையும் நெய் மத்தி மீன் வளம்

ଭାଡ଼ାକାରାରେ ସାର୍ଡିନ୍ ମାଛ ବୋଝେଇ ଦିନକୁ ଦିନ କମୁଛି

वडकरामधे  घटते आहे टारलीची आवक

ವಡಕರದಲ್ಲಿ ಕುಸಿಯುತ್ತಿರುವ ಮತ್ತಿ ಮೀನುಗಳ ಲೋಡು

सार्डिन की आमद में गिरावट के चलते संकट में वडकरा के मछुआरे

વડકારામાં લુપ્તતાના આરે સાર્ડીન માછલી

नंदावत सार्डिन मछरी, बिपत मं वडकरा के मछुआरा

केरल के चहेता, सस्ता आउर पौष्टिक मछरी संकट में बा

ভাদাকারার জালে বাড়ন্ত হল খয়রা মাছের ঝাঁক

বাডাকাৰাত এতিয়া জালত নুঠে জাক জাক ছাৰ্দিন মাছ

വടകരയിൽ മത്തിച്ചുമടുകൾ ഇല്ലാ‍താവുന്നു

Kozhikode

At present, we can only accept donations in Indian rupees by Indian citizens. All donations made to the CounterMedia Trust are eligible for exemption under Section 80G of the Income Tax Act, 1961. Here is a copy of our exemption certificate.


India is bigger than New Delhi. And people need to know more about the rest of this vast nation.


Younger, media-saturated generations are growing up knowing little about their country, but a lot about the elites of a few metros and towns. For a narrowly-owned, commercially-driven media, the dumbing down of a nation is part of standard operating procedure. The last available data of the Centre for Media Studies (CMS, Delhi) show us that reports from New Delhi account for 66 per cent of news on the front pages of major dailies. The CMS data also found that just about 0.24 per cent of front page news came out of rural India. The TV channels are not much better.PARI exists to change that.We are a non-profit organisation. We publish under creative commons, and do not charge readers a subscription fee or put-up advertisements. Nothing is behind a paywall and we are completely free-to-access by anyone. We guard our independence and receive no direct grants from governments and corporations, nor any funding that could dictate our content. So, we are dependent on volunteer labour, donations from individuals, foundations and institutions that see value in independent and free media.PARI is changing the way Indian journalism reports and documents the rural.India is more than the elite of a few metros and towns. We report on rural lives and livelihoods, languages, communities, migrants and more. We need your help to pull off this most ambitious of Indian journalistic endeavours. The scale of this effort costs money. Donate generously - and spread the word about PARI.&nbsp;

Donate FAQs


ଆସନ୍ତୁ ଆପଣଙ୍କୁ ପରିଚିତ କରାଇବା

ପରୀକୁ ସ୍ୱାଗତ

ଆମର ସମସ୍ତ ବିଷୟବସ୍ତୁ ସବୁବେଳେ ବ୍ୟବହାର ପାଇଁ ମାଗଣାରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ ରହିବ। ଯଦି ଆମର କାମ ଆପଣଙ୍କୁ ଭଲ ଲାଗୁଛି, ଆପଣ ସ୍ୱେଚ୍ଛାସେବୀ ଭାବରେ ଆମକୁ ସହଯୋଗ କରିପାରିବେ କିମ୍ବା ଆମ କାମ ପାଇଁ ଆର୍ଥିକ ଅନୁଦାନ ପ୍ରଦାନ କରି ଆମକୁ ସାହାଯ୍ୟ କରିପାରିବେ।

Want to republish this article? Please write to <a href="mailto:zahra@ruralindiaonline.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">zahra@ruralindiaonline.org</a> with a cc to <a href="mailto:namita@ruralindiaonline.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">namita@ruralindiaonline.org</a>

Sardine loads are falling in Vadakara

Oil sardines are important in Kerala's fishing industry. Growing unpredictability in the catch is impacting the lives of people who do daily-wage loading work at this harbour in Kozhikode district

Related stories

A rain-scented walk in Sivagangai

Living on ravaged land

Biswas and the bamboos on his bike

Recycling energy, Godda style

Bhadels of Goa

Pookadai: still throbbing with morning life

Koli Kadlas

Malnourishment high among children of migrants: study

Wheels of the rural Indian West

Living Under a Red Cloud in Bellary

Vedla – earrings of the Maher community

Dreaming of water, drowning in debt

Kali: the dancer and his dreams

Farmer's diet worse than a convict's

In Yavatmal, life goes on

Suicides are about the living, not the dead

Death of a carpenter

Hoisa Shigmo!

Women farmers: weaving a life in Anantapur

Defiant in Dhinkia

Spice and all that's nice

Kerala's Green Army

The ‘jugaad’ not-a-mobile

Health as someone else's wealth

Calibrating in a Kudumbashree assembly unit