Recurring incidents of mammoth commercial ships hitting small boats of fishermen engaged in their job off the Kerala coast, in which several persons have been killed and injured and their livelihood has been lost due to destruction of their boats, nets and other implements, and failure of the State and Central Governments to take proper action against the shipping firms are enhancing the fears of the fishermen community in the State.
Their worries about insecurity and helplessness in the sea in front of the mammoth tankers and cargo ships have been multiplied with the latest incident in which three fishermen were killed, nine went missing and two were injured when a merchant ship, allegedly a Mumbai-based tanker, collided with their boat destroying it totally early Tuesday morning.
The incident took place at a zone about 24 nautical miles off the coast of Munambam near Kochi when 13 of the 14 fishermen aboard the fishing boat, Oceanus, were asleep while on the way to work. The vessel, as it has happened in almost all such cases, did not care to stop for rescuing the fishermen but sailed away northward.
“What we understand from incidents so far and how the authorities are offering excuses on why such accidents are recurring is that these mid-sea massacres of poor fishermen will continue. Efforts are already on to find fault with the fishermen who were on the boat,” alleged an office-bearer of the Kerala Boat Owners Association.