Save the Coast, Save the Fishers

Abstract

"Marine fishing communities in India, the traditional inhabitants of the approximately 8,000-km long coastline of the country, have fished for generations along the coast. For them, the coastal area is as much a lived space as an occupational space, encompassing both the land and the sea on which they live and work. The beach has been the space used for landing fish; selling, salting, smoking, curing and drying fish; and tying up boats and fishing implements and doing maintenance work on them, among other day-to-day activities, which makes the shore as much a working space as the sea."