One day we visited a fishing village in the coastal area of Andra Pradesh. A lot of fishing boats were idle alongside quay. We were told that after the Tsunami the big fishes had disappeared from the sea. The big fishing boats could not catch enough fish to cover the cost of fuel!

We were told that the owner of the fishing boat had to spend about 20.000,- Rupies for fuel, food and other things need for the five days the boat had to be away for normal fishing catch. Now they only got fish for 3.000,- Rupies and were running a loss. Therefore the boats were just alongside the quay and not out on the sea for fishing.

A lot of fishermen had lost their income and their families suffered because of the Tsunami. We asked them how they were paid when fishing went normal. “We are paid on a commission base,” was the answer we got. But we wanted more details and asked them to explain the entire system for us. This is what they told us:

Before any salary was paid, the owner had to have all his expenses in running the boat covered. The profit was distributed between the owner and the 8 fishermen according to this percentage: Owner 90% and the 8 fishermen had to share the 10% among themselves!

We were shocked to hear about this unfair distribution. 90% of the profit goes to the owner and the 8 fishermen are sharing the 10% that is left. These fishermen are totally exploited! This is an evil system. There is nothing to justify such an unequal share of profit! The Indian fishing industry certainly need some radical change!