Chennai: Winding up her sales for the day at 2 pm, R. Gowri, a 50-year-old vendor at the Besant Nagar fish market was found blaming the press for the drastic fall in the sale of fish since the oil spill in the city on Saturday. "After the reports in the media stating that the fish is contaminated following the oil spill, our sales dipped by more than 80 percent. What proof does the media have on contamination?" she questioned.

The spillage at Ennore has had a ripple effect on the livelihood of fishermen throughout the Chennai Coast as the markets depicted an empty picture at a peak hour like 6 pm.


Most women of the fisherfolk like Gowri are unwilling to open their stalls in the evening, as they had predicted the result: A huge loss. "I used to make around Rs 5000 a day. However, as many customers, fell prey to media reports, my earnings have dipped to a mere Rs 200 to Rs 700 a day," said Lakshmi, a vendor.

The overall loss at the Besant Nagar fishing hamlet (with 40 stalls) for Tuesday was estimated between 1.2 lakh to 1.6 lakh. Staring at the traces of oil sediments that had washed ashore on the Thiruvanmiyur beach, Rasi Kannan, a fisherman lamented that the government was not considerate towards the fishermen. "It is interlinked.

The catch had been poor since last week. Now, there are no sales as customers are frightened of contamination. I don't know how I would feed my family," he rued. As the sales had been poor, he did not venture into the sea since Monday.

In an explanatory tone, he said, "How could the fish be contaminated? We go into deep waters for fishing. It is also easy for the customers to identify tainted fish, which smells so bad."K. Bharathi of the South Indian Fishermen Welfare Association requested the fisheries department to issue a statement, rubbishing the rumours of contamination."The overall loss is accounted to 19 crore a day. We also incurred loss as our nets on the shore were damaged, due to oil spill," he added.

"The department has sent a few samples of fish to test the contamination at Tamil Nadu Fisheries University. We cannot release the report before the result," said an official, on account of anonymity. However, the public is unwilling to buy the fish, which makes up for an inexpensive palate of protein.