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Sales down, fisherfolk look for lifeline
The fishing community is the hardest hit in the tsunami disaster, having suffered the highest number of casualties as well as damage to property and fishing equipment. Now their meagre efforts to restart their lost livelihoods is facing an even greater challenge with consumers shying way from eating fish fearing contamination.

Many fishermen who survived are making valiant efforts to return to the sea again and engage in the same livelihood despite the very same source of their livelihood wrecking havoc in their lives.

Shantha Jayasuriya from Maggona has been engaged in fishing for the past six years. He lost property worth Rs. 700,000 but survived and managed to salvage a boat, which he put to sea once again. "Our income has dropped drastically. Before the tsunami I made Rs. 700 - 800 a day. Now I cannot even get Rs. 200," he says.

This is the fate of around 12 others who join him in the daily fishing expeditions. Along the southern costal belt, it is evident that the sale of fish is no longer robust like it was prior to the tsunami. Many of the popular spots along the Galle Road where fish sales were booming have almost disappeared. W. Pradeep, a young man in the Maggona area who sells fish says his sales have dropped by 90 per cent.

"The prices have declined but no one is buying the catch. We have to throw much of it away as many people are afraid to eat fish," he lamented. Strangely, the sale of dry fish seems to have picked up in some of these same areas and fishermen could be seen laying their catch to dry hoping for better sales.

The fishermen are seeking some form of compensation from the government because even though they have not lost their homes, they have lost their means of livelihood, which also makes them destitute.

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