Rains hit seafood lovers in Vizag hard

Visakhapatnam: The week-long rain in North Coastal Andhra Pradesh has hit sea food lovers in the region hard, as prices of sea fish and prawn rose by 30 to 40 per cent due to low availability.

Nearly 70 per cent of the 600 odd mechanised boats and most of the traditional fishing boats remained anchored at the Fishing Harbour following the heavy rains and rough sea weather.  

Usually around 3,500 tonnes of fish and prawn are caught every day. But due to the rains, only 1,000 to 1,500 tonnes of fish and prawn arrived in Vizag city. This shot the prices up, says president of the Visakha Dolphin Boat Owners Association Ch. Satyanarayana Murthy.

While the big size white prawn is now priced around Rs 600 a kg, the brown prawn (medium size) is sold at around Rs 400 a kg. Similarly, the much-demanded white pomfret costs between Rs 500 and Rs 700 a kg depending on the size, and the cost of seer fish is around Rs 500 a kg.

The prices of all the popular varieties have increased by at least 30 per cent, says G. Gopi Krishna, a seafood lover.

Fishermen are hopeful the heavy rains in the past one week will increase their yield in the coming weeks and the catch will be higher in November and December.

Seafood lovers would get a relief from the high prices in the winter season as the prices will stabilize once the catch increased, they added.