Every time I hear that fishermen are poor and they don’t have enough, I feel amazed and astonished. Seriously! The fishermen I know are rich; perhaps they are the richest people. Actually there are two or three groups within fishermen. They are “odi verin”, “keyolhun” and “masverin”. The odi veriyaa is the one who owns the fishing vessel, keyolhu who manages the fishing and masverin, those who do the hard work of fishing.
In some areas of the Maldives, masverin are treated as ”slaves”. They are not well paid, their rights deprived. Maybe some of these people live a poor life. And even if subsidies are provided and other benefits provided, the only groups in advantage will be odi verin and keyolhun, but the masverin will remain in same conditions as now, unless and until better rules and regulations are imposed.
However, my point today is, fishermen are already given enough benefits. It is time that they grow-up and start evolving. Why I say so is, look at the number of fishing vessels owned by a single odi veri. Two to three maybe. And each time they become bigger and better. From 75 feet to 125 feet! Considered the tons of catch per day, fishing vessels lengthier then 85 feet are too much for Maldives. The record catch recorded so far is 50 tons, and that was onece! The general amount of catch is even lower then 25 tons even in blessed seasons! To make use of these huge vessels it is time that Maldivian fishermen start spending weeks on the sea. And in order to do this, they need advanced freezing systems installed in their vessels. Why are they not doing this instead of building new vessels from the profit?
The fisheries ministry has introduced fish finding systems to the Maldives. How many fishermen are willing to buy this and start using it? From what I see it is only a few fishermen who want to use technologies such as the fish finder systems. And it is sort of hilarious, the fishermen call people who use the system, ask for locations where there are fishes, yet they are unwilling to use the system by themselves!
For the government, it is time to impose better laws and regulations for fishermen. The only thing the fishermen need at the moment is a system. Systematic procedures, standards to maintain the freshness of the fish they catch, systems to process the fish, systems to transport the fish, systems to sell the fish. Fishermen are already provided with enough subsidies and benefits.
If fishermen are poor, how could they build vessel after vessel, how could they be the only people who own cars in some islands, how could they buy houses and lands at Male’ and Hulhumale’? The people who are unable to make a living by fishing are the people who want to enter into the world of fishing. Of course, the government might want to consider giving such people a helping hand.
-thadu-