“Beyond the Catch: A Holistic Socioeconomic Evaluation of Aghanashini's Fishing Communities”

Abstract

Aghanashini river is one of the productive riverine systems of coastal Karnataka with reference to fishery resources which drains into Arabian Sea at Tadadi village of Uttara Kannada District. In order to understand educational back ground, fishery related lively hood and economic status of fishing communities residing across the Aghanashini estuary, a questionnaire was prepared to conduct the interview. Based on the interactions with 250 number of fishermen/women we came to know that total number of persons directly involved in collection of bivalves, clams, oysters etc. are around 600. On an average of 250 fishermen/women venture to harvest bivalves on daily basis particularly during low tide.  On an average each person gets the fishes for 16 days in month, each person collects around 14kgs of bivalves in a day. Usually bivalves are sold Rs. 80/kg, October to May is the peak season for the fishery. Around 19 villages are directly involved in fishing which consists of 2398 fishers of which 1548 male and 850 female.  Harikantra community is dominant followed by Gowdas, Ambigas, Gabits, Muslims, Patagar and Naik communities, literacy level of majority of  these are uneducated, some have done matriculation and few passed secondary school. Fishing is the main source of livelihood to majority of the communities in this area.