Mangaluru: With no fishing vessels getting into the waters for the past one week due to the effect of Ockhi cyclone, the supply of fish to the coastal city has been severely depleted. The available fish stock is getting sold at a premium price.
Premium fish like seer and white pomfret were not available in the market on Wednesday. But fish lovers can look for better days since boats may get into the waters on Thursday.
The price of seer, which was hovering around Rs 500 to Rs 550 per kilogram on Tuesday shot up to Rs 770 and white pomfret was not available. Even the price of mackerel, which was Rs 180 a kg a couple of days back, went up to Rs 220 per kg on Wednesday.

Karnataka Fisheries Development Corporation said no fresh fish had landed on Wednesday and what was being sold at markets had landed a couple of days back. “Usually boats preserve good quality fish to release to the market at a later date. Hence, we are getting small quantities of premium fish like black pomfret and seer. But that also disappears fast,” a source said. KFDC procures fish from Malpe and Mangaluru Old Port. Sometimes, during crisis or fish ban in Karnataka coastal waters, fish from Kerala and Chennai also land up here. But that too has not happened this time as Ockhi has affected both the east and west coast equally.
Purse Siener Fishermen’s Association president Umesh Karkera said: “We have been getting hourly updates from meteorological centre at Hyderabad. According to them, the weather will improve on Thursday. Even on Wednesday, though cloudy, weather has improved a lot compared to what it was in the past one week. We will send some 15 to 20 purse sieners on Thursday for fishing. If the going is good, all boats will go for fishing from Friday.”
However, small quantities of fish like squids, disco fish, pink perch, reef cod are expected to arrive on Thursday by boats which had gone for fishing to Karwar and Goa and were stranded there. “We expect those boats to come back with small quantities of catch,” said Karkera.
Local markets too had less supply of fish and premium variety of fish was missing.