Karwar, (DHNS): Trawler owners gear up for the fresh fishing season. Fishing boat owners at Baithkol port near here are getting ready for a fresh season as the two-month deep sea fishing ban for mechanised trawlers will end on Saturday.

Deep sea fishing was banned for trawlers from May 1 to July 31. With just two days left for the new fishing season to begin, the owners of the trawlers are busy making last-minute preparations.

Owners are seen performing puja to trawlers at auspicious time, a tradition being followed in this part of the world ahead of every new fishing season.

“We have performed puja to the trawler at auspicious muhurthum, so that it should not get into trouble when it takes to sea, says, Suresh Harikantra, owner of a trawler.

The fishing boat owners are busy creating a reserve pool of skilled labourers. Apart from locals, skilled labourers from Odisha and Uttar Pradesh were also being roped in by the owners by paying them the hefty advance.

The owners pay the labourers on the lay (sharing of profit) basis. The owner of the traweler takes a part of the profit (generated from fishing) while the rest is distributed between the labourers. The person driving the trawler (Tandla) and the harrowman (the one who identifies the location of fish) get major share in the profit. There are over 2,500 fishing trawlers in the district.

Prized catch

In the first two to three weeks of the season prawns will be the prized catch. Fishermen make good money netting Tiger prawns and White prawns in the first few weeks.

The breeding season for fish starts in rainy season. So, the government used to impose ban on deep sea fishing for 45 days every year starting from July 15. But this year, the ban on deep sea fishing was for 60 days.

The trawlers from Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Uttara Kannada will take up deep sea fishing from Aug 1, says, Ganapati Mangre, district president of fish merchants’ union.