Simultaneously, a debate rages among scientists and state policy-makers about the effects of trawling during the monsoon season. Since the first time a ban on monsoon trawling was imposed in 1998, it has evolved into a metaphor for successive state governments' antipathy to taking a clear-cut policy decision. The 1998 ban was imposed on the recommendations of a committee appointed by the government. Since then two more committees have come and gone. This year the rumblings of possible clashes between traditional fishermen and mechanised boat operators have come even before the monsoon clouds.

Kerala Swathanthra MatsyaThozhilali Union, affiliated to the National Fish Workers' Forum (NFWF) headed by Thomas Kochery, a Catholic priest, will hold a dharna before the Kerala secretariat on May 27 to press a "permanent ban on monsoon trawling all over the country". The state fisheries department, on the other hand, is indecision personified. With the decade-old Kerala State Marine Fisheries Regulation Act under siege from the mechanised boat operators and marine scientists, nobody knows what the monsoons will bring.Joseph Kalappurakkal, leading the group of mechanised boat operators in Kerala, has already condemned any move to ban trawling during the monsoons. He claims that monsoon season is not the right time to ban trawling if the attempt is at preserving the commercially rich species available in Kerala waters. "The breeding season for these varieties of fish is between November and January and not June and August," he says.

On the other hand, "banning monsoon trawling makes us forego a large amount of revenue earnings fromexport of rare varieties like tiger shripms". Rough estimates say that boats operating out of Kollam, Kerala's biggest fishing harbour, catch about $4,00,000 worth of tiger shrimps on any "good day" during the monsoon season. Traditional boats are unable to engage in deep water fishing which yields the tiger shrimps.

Mechanised boat operators are also sore at the way recommendations of expert committees have been implemented. They point out that a ban on ringseine nets are not implemented. Nor are the recommendations on restricting the number of vessels given a serious consideration by the state fisheries department.

Scientists working with the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) have already done scores of studies on over capitalisation of the fisheries sector in India. According to them there are too many boats trying to exploit the scarce resources. The findings are not peculiar to India. Quarreling men and disappearing fish are worldwide phenomenon as revealed by a recent study by theFood and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

According to the study, 30 per cent of the most important fish species have declined over the last decade. Yields of another 25 per cent have plateaued over the years. Overfishing has been sighted as the most important factor in this. In India too marine fish harvests have declined. In the 1980s fish landings stood at 3.3 lakh tonnes. It went up to 6.63 lakh tonnes in the early 1990s. In 1996 fish landings stood at 5.7 lakh tonnes. Last year it is reported to have dropped further.