Over the past few months citizens of the country had to bear with the steep rise in the price of fuel. Goa being a coastal state, fishing happens to be one of the main activities which involves thousands of Goan families.
Many of them own fishing trawlers and large fishing boats which go out in the deep sea. However the rising price of diesel could put a huge dent to their profits.
Large fishing boats consume hundreds of liters of diesel. However, at times these fishing boats have to come back with a small catch thereby suffering a huge loss. Rise in price of diesel affects the operating time, the frequency of fishing trips and areas covered during fishing.
Many fishing boats could have stopped going into the sea altogether due to the prohibitive price of diesel. As a result of this, the quantity of fish available for the general public in the market is considerably less, leading to price-hike of the staple food of Goans.
The government needs to come to the aid of the Goan fishing community by providing diesel at a subsidized price. If the price of the fuel keeps on increasing further, the fishing activities in the State could die a natural death.
Goans will then have to rely on fish coming from other States which could be laced with preservatives since this fish could be taking a couple of days to reach Goa.
