Govind D Belgaumkar/The Hindu

• Fishermen blame it on people who go there to buy fish
• Fish waste, including decayed lot, is strewn everywhere, says a visitor
• Fisheries Department to launch a cleanliness awareness campaign soon

Mangalore, Dec 12: Nearly three weeks have elapsed after the European Union Commission visited the fishing harbour to inspect the conditions there. But nothing seems to have changed for the better in the harbour.

Naveen Naravi from Dharmasthala, who visited the harbour for the first time, expressed shock over the dirty atmosphere there. He said the fishing market near the State Bank of India bus-stand was much cleaner. Mr. Naravi said that he had come there to buy fresh fish at an affordable price, as he had been told by some people. Although he bought some fish, he was disgusted by the stink around the place, he said.

The fish auctioning near the auction hall in the harbour was being carried on amidst fish waste and dirt when The Hindu Correspondent visited the place on Wednesday. . The tobacco chewing and spitting by fishermen and women had left red patches on the concreted wharf. A youth, asked why he was keeping the to-be-auctioned fish so close to one such patch, he said: “Don’t worry. Nothing will happen.”

K. Revathi, a fisher woman, who was chewing tobacco, said the wharf was being cleaned twice a day but people could not be stopped from their habits. She blamed the people, who came there in large numbers, for the dirt all around. However, another woman, who was dressing a bunch of fish and crabs, left the waste there and went away. The channel in the large auction hall, meant to carry water for cleaning, was filled with plastics, paper and fish waste.

At the entrance of the auction hall there was a spot where a heap of decaying fish was lying scattered. “Nobody will buy it and that is why they have left it there,” said Mustafa, who weighs the fish at the wharf. Where will the waste go finally? “It will be dumped in the water. Where else?” asked a boat-owner. He said that he was aware that it was not good for underwater life, but that had been the practice there all through. Sureshkumar Ullal, deputy director of Fisheries, said he too was not happy with the level of hygiene in the harbour. A lot of work was needed to be done there, especially considering that the fish exports from the city could be at stake, he said. A team of experts on hygiene from European Union Commission visited the fishing harbour here on November 22. A negative report by the team could have jeopardised the exports. Mr. Ullal said a committee of fishermen, their leaders and officials, would be constituted soon to supervise cleanliness in the harbour. It would undertake awareness campaigns, as well. Conceding that the fish waste should not be dumped in the water, he said that a sewage line entering the harbour near the Metro auction hall could be potentially dangerous to fish. This had been brought to the notice of the Mangalore City Corporation on many occasions but to no avail, he said and added that a treatment plant proposed by the department was still to be approved.