Karwar: Large quantities of ‘Kargil’ fish have been caught, but despite huge catch, the fishermen are upset and are praying for survival. There is a pall of gloom and fear is gradually gripping the fishermen.
Traditionally, the belief is that these bluish-green fish are bad omen heralding the coming of difficult days. Known as leather jacket fish or the triggerfish, the name Kargil was given by the locals for reasons unknown. However, a certain degree of fear is attached to this fish because when this fish lands in the net in large quantities, it means that the valuable fish resources in the sea have depleted. It is considered as a waste and inedible fish, which either lands in fish meal companies (as a last resort) or dumped out in open.
This fish thrives by consuming valuable fish resources, especially mackerel, sardine etc, thereby totally destroying the fish stock! On Friday morning, the fishermen from Karwar were out for a shock as they caught at least eight boats or 400 buckets full of this fish.
“This fish consumes valuable fish resources. Hence the catch of valuable fish goes down drastically when the population of this fish grows. This fish is unfit for consumption and basically even fish meal companies do not prefer to use this fish.
Hence catching this fish leads to massive losses to the fishermen,” says a local fisherman who feels that migration of fish like sardine, overexploitation of resources, a boom in fish meal industry and climate change are wreaking havoc and the oceans are showing up the symptoms!
