the goan I network
MARGAO
Trade normally kick starts in Goa’s lone wholesale fish market before dawn around 2.30 am when insulated and other vehicles carrying fish from across the borders enter the market. And, the activity continues throughout the morning session depending upon fish availability and the demand.
Thursday turned out different as the hustle and bustle went missing with the government banning entry of fish transporting trucks from across the border. Perhaps for the first time since the wholesale fish market was shifting to the present location more than a decade and half ago, the market wore a deserted look on Thursday.
While a handful of local vendors could be spotted in the wholesale fish market selling Manshe shrimps, around a dozen trucks were parked inside the market, besides half a dozen insulated empty fish trucks parked along the wholesale fish market road.
Whatever little manshe shrimps that were brought into the market got exhausted within minutes. By 8 am, the wholesale fish market wore a deserted look with just around 8-10 vendors found inside the market, selling fish in vanttes. Along with these handful of fish vendors, around 4-5 local vendors selling vegetables were seen around at the exit gate of the wholesale fish market.
People who had come to the market to scout for fish netted at the sluice gates and in the shallow waters of the Arabian Sea returned home disappointed. While the small quantity of manshe fish exhausted immediately, there was no trace of the fish including much sought after “korbott” netted by the traditional rampon and canoes from the sea.
The ground reality in the wholesale fish market was clear that the government’s 15-day ban on the entry of outside fish into the market stands banned.
