With my body clock out of whack, I was wide awake at 6am. I took my camera down to the beach to have a swim and watch the sunrise. As I got there a group of fishermen were heaving their wooden boat into the water. I swam out past them and watched them paddle a huge arc before coming back near the shore. The crew hopped out onto the beach with one man remaining to paddle back out to sea.
The guidebooks mention that even experienced swimmers have drowned in this area. I had swum several times far from shore without noticing any current. Eyeing the boat I had a mild suspicion that maybe those swimmers got caught in nets instead. Not wanting to become part of the catch, I caught a wave back to shore. Watching the fishermen line up on the beach I reminded myself to ask one of the guesthouse staff, Meksin, how the fishing worked – his father, he had told me, works here as a fisherman. It turns out I would get some first hand experience…
The group of men had several younger boys with them. One of them waved me over and asked me to help “just for 5 minutes”. I took my place along the line and helped pull the rope. It was attached to a large net that looped out in an arc offshore. Another crew were a few hundred meters down the beach hauling in the other end. Each person on the rope – including myself – is a Hauler: pulling the rope backwards up the beach until they meet The Coiler. He has the best job and makes neat towering coils from the rope. After handing off to the Coiler, the Hauler heads back down to the front of the line to grab the next section of rope. The worst job goes to the kids, he Bundlers. They stand out in the deeper water and as the rope turns to net, they collect this up and hold it on their shoulders to keep it out of the sand. This involves a lot of heavy lifting and being bashed around in the surf. Finally the end of net is brought in and opened up to reveal the haul: a fairly measly few kilos of small fish.
As I took part in the fishermen’s daily ritual, I realised I was watching economic progress in action. The region of Kerala has make huge progress in education and leads the developing world in literacy. These kids, many of whom spoke English, will be getting a good education and won’t want to settle for lives as fishermen. Many will likely end up in the booming tourism industry.
So who will catch the fish? A job as a fisherman would have to pay more to attract the locals. When labour becomes expensive, it makes sense to invest in capital: instead of 15 people spending over an hour of hard-labour dragging in a few kilo of small fish, the same work could be done by two people and a motor boat. The economic lesson is a simple one. The ecological lesson of plundering the sea for a handful of fish is left to the reader.
Monkey # 973,201 