ALAPPUZHA: As the techniques of fishing changed, the nostalgic Chakara, the marine phenomenon of fishes thronging mud bank formations, has become elusive.
As the southwest monsoon progresses, the deprived fishers are pinning hopes on Chakara that they expect in coming days. Hinting at a good season, a shoal of prawns surfaced on the Chellanam beach the other day.
The phenomenon used to appear in Alappuzha when Kuttanad remain submerged in floodwater, which has already happened.
The flow of water underground from Vembanad Lake will help mud bank formation in the sea.
Chakara hit last year, after several years of meaningless wait, in Punnapra, though in a limited scale.
Fishers attribute it to factors like dwindling fish wealth and climate change.
Gangadharan, 66, of Purakkad, who has seen four decades of deep sea fishing, recalls how his birthplace catapulted to fame as a centre of Chaakara.
In the 60s and 70s, he says, the sea usually creates mud bank during the monsoon, attracting fishers across the district to celebrate Chaakara.
But the fishing with doll nets has turned it a graveyard of juvenile fishes.
"This is too prevents Chaakara," he says.
The process of convergence of minerals-rich mud used to be activated by energetic waves of sea resulting in the formation of mud banks.
The higher quantity of Nitrate and Phosphate enhance the primary production of phytoplankton and zooplankton, which attracts plankton-feeding small fishes.
The large fishes that feed on them flocks here in search of food.
