“Blue Revolution” introduced aquaculture, shrimp farming and mechanized fishing to Asian fisheries in 1980s. Rise of modern aquaculture has enormously transformed the Asian fisheries. This transformation referred to as “modernization era”, expected improved income and better living standards for small scale fishers. Results however are the opposite. Escalating conflicts at macro and micro levels, social dislocation, rapid degradation to coastal and estuarine habitats, forced labor and slavery are negative effects, to name but a few. Chilika lake in India; the largest brackish water estuary in Asia still bears witness to this catastrophe. More than 100,000 fishers used to live around it.
To encourage shrimp farming, Orissa state government brought out a new fishing leasing system for Chilika lake in 1991. To execute this, the state declared a 1km wide fishing zone around the lake and they banned fishing activities in the middle of the lake. Each bordering village received a lease for shrimp culture in the zone for which all fishers were required to pay a tax to the Revenue Department.
Traditional fishing traps in the shallow area ceased to operate so did the gillnetting and cast-netting in the middle of the lake. The new circumstances compelled fishers to break away from traditional fishing rules and practices which set limitations and controls for responsible fishing.
Some fishers were able to start shrimp culture but many failed. Unable to invest and pay the tax, others sub-leased their plots and ended up being bonded labours in them. Sub-leased plots grown colossally with external financers; top politicians, bureaucrats, and marine product merchants. Still with sub-leased income many found it difficult make ends meet and went on to fishing in the recommend zone, often using illegal fishing nets (zero-mesh-sized-nets). Excessive and chaotic fishing resulted in shrinking catch per person. With the loss of livelihoods, fishers began to migrate to cities and ended up with unskilled labor .Some studies confirm that more than one third of adult fishers have lost their livelihoods.
Seedlings provided by hatcheries failed to meet the demand of shrimp culture around the lake. Forced labouring got women and children into the job of collecting natural seedling coming into the lake from sea. This further pushed the fish stocks to dwindle. More than 50% of school drop-outs and very low school enrolments followed.
Shrimp culture impeded the free flow of water and juvenile migration from sea. Continues absence of free-water-flow led to erratic and sporadic estuary mouth choked-ups and water logging in some villages.
The joint project between Orissa state government and TATA called “Integrated Shrimp Farm Project of Chilika Aquatic farm” in late 1991 fanned the flames. Fishers and environmentalists staged a protest against it and succeeded in getting rid of the TATA. Anti-shrimp culture protest did not stop there and proceeded to filing a lawsuit in Supreme Court of India. On the 11th of December 1996, the Supreme Court ruled that no new shrimp aquaculture operations be permitted in the Chilika Lake. Even so, the ruling had little effect on shrimp industry around Chilika Lake. ‘Mafias’ backed by powerful elites in the area continued to run shrimp farms.
The fishers started a do or die movement in 1999 demanding a total prohibition of shrimp culture in the lake. This led to a bloody fight between fishers of Sorana village of Kurdha district on one side and state police on the other, killing four fishers on the spot.
We can find many stories like this around the world. We tell them and we retell them. But Have we learnt from them? Have we planned actions to put them right or have we worsened them?
