Goa's Attempt to Revive Traditional Fishing Culture October, 2002
PANAJI: Be it the pristine tropical surrounding, music, or even fish, Goa has always had a flavour of its own for everything. But over the years the unique culture and traditions that gave Goa its trademark exclusivity have got lost in the maze of rampant commercialisation.
The onus of changing the status quo has, however, been taken over by a small village near Goa, Sinquerim, known for its majestic fort and lovely beaches. The people here have formed a heritage club which will work for saving the small hamlet with its famous fort, from losing its culture and tradition.
In its first efforts, the Sinquerium club has organised a fishing competition to revive public interest in the dying tradition of rod-fishing. Adolphine Abreu, president of the club, says," We realised that a lot of big economic forces are taking over the place. So far the village has been laid back and normal but because of this the entire village decided to get together to form this heritage club, we will save our tradition through this."
"Fishing is the tradition of our ancestors, we have practically grown up on fish. Moreover, this is a migration spot, so we are never short of fish. Our ancestors, our ancestor's ancestors survived on it, so it's a symbol of our culture," added Abreu.
Fishing, an art by itself, is done through angling. It involves a lot of patience and expertise. However, the use of trawlers and modern fishing equipment has practically killed the art. Anthony Gomes, a fisherman for almost three decades, spoke about how fishing used to be earlier and what it has become now.
"For me, fishing has been very natural, right from childhood I loved the sea but now those days have gone. Trawlers hardly leave any fish for us, but the joy of this fishing is different. It involves a lot of patience till the line is tugged at and many a time people are dissappointed. Even preparing the bait is very tricky, for every fish you want to catch, the bait has to be made differently," said Gomes.
Though the competition has not received an overwhelming response, the enthusiasm shown by the people has encouraged the sponsors to conduct it on a grand scale.
ANI
-- Using M2, Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/m2/
########################################################################## # Send submissions for Goanet to [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # PLEASE remember to stay on-topic (related to Goa), and avoid top-posts # # More details on Goanet at http://joingoanet.shorturl.com/ # # Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others # ##########################################################################
