Udupi : The three-day Matsya Mela (Fish Fest) organised by the Department of Fisheries, began at the Malpe beach here on Friday.

For the foodies, there were three stalls providing mouth-watering sea food. The delicacies on offer included fish and chips, fish biryani, golden fried prawn with hot garlic sauce, crispy fried prawn, fish kebab, fish rava fry, squid chilly, fish shawarma, and fish burger.

Those preferring vegetarian could taste veg nuggets in chilly sauce, aloo tikki chaat, and gobi manchurian. Besides these, there were other delicacies on offer both for sea food lovers and vegetarians.

After having your fill, you could go around in the exhibition put up by the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute. This exhibition gave a glimpse into the development of fisheries in the State through the means of small models right from the 1960s to the present times.

You could see how fishermen, who started fishing with catamarans and cast nets in 1960s graduated to trawl, fibre boats and purse seine boats in 1980s and from there to motorized fibre boats and multi-day trawlers by 2000s.

It also gave you a picture of oyster culture, mussel harvesting and estuarine small scale cage culture, cold storage facilities, advances in fish drying and enhancement of fish production. You could also get a glimpse of sea-shore fishing and monsoon fishing in traditional boats. In short it is a bird’s eye view of evolution of fishing from the 1960s to the present day.

The aquarium with several types of decorative fish was yet another attraction for the visitors. Then there was a stall of an integrated air-conditioned fish retail outlet and of a fisheries harbour put up by the Karnataka Fisheries Development Corporation.

Besides this, there was an entertainment programme on the stage at the Malpe beach, where mimicry artiste, Manjunath Kundeshwar, regaled the audience by imitating the voice of several political leaders and film actors.

Later in the evening, Pramod Madhwraj, Minister of State for Fisheries, Youth Services and Sports, inaugurated the Matysa Mela. Meenakshi Bannanje, President of Udupi City Municipal Council, Sandhya Tilakraj, Vice-President, and others were present.